Whistleblower made redundant after raising alarm over management of GP surgery

Twm Owen, local democracy reporter

A mum who raised concerns at management of the GP surgery where she worked has lost her home after being made redundant.

Amy McCrystal, from Blaenavon, was the practice manager at troubled Brynmawr Medical Practice which has now been taken back under the control of the NHS following failings by the private partnership that ran it from April last year.

That partnership, by doctors J Ahmed and J Allinson, is supported by private firm eHarley Street which manages its back office functions as a subcontractor.

But according to Ms McCrystal problems with paying suppliers, locum doctors and the taxman became apparent within months of the partnership taking over.

She was made redundant in November after she raised concerns with Gwent’s Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in June. She was told redundancy was due to “operational reasons”.

Faced with losing her income just weeks before Christmas the single mum-of-two had to move back in with her mother, in Forgeside, as she feared she could no longer stay in her rental property in Blaenavon.

“My concern was could I continue to afford my bills as we all live to our means? Ms McCrystal said: “My children do outside school activities that all have to be paid for and I started to worry without a permanent job would I fall into debt, which is the last thing I want? The only way out I could see was to give the house up and move back in with my mum.”

Ms McCrystal was directly impacted by problems at the practice and called into the Job Centre last summer and told she needed to find work as issues with staff PAYE tax numbers meant her Universal Credit payments had ballooned, leaving benefits staff to assume she wasn’t working.

“I looked at my statement online and the Universal Credit was something like £1,600 when it would normally be £200 something.

“I was invited to the Job Centre and they said ‘it looks like you need to get into work’. I said ‘you’ve got this all wrong’.”

Ms McCrystal, who is now working on a temporary basis at a surgery in the Rhondda, said staff also discovered pension payments hadn’t been made.

She was also concerned at the impact on patients. Failure to pay suppliers saw the centre issuing prescriptions for patients to collect dressings from a pharmacy and bring them back to the surgery to be dressed.

At the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board’s most recent meeting members were updated on how the Ahmed/Allison partnership had voluntarily returned the Brynmawr contract to the NHS, and measures the board is taking to monitor its other practices at Pontypool, Aberbeeg in Abertillery, Bryntirion in Bargoed, and Tredegar.

Health chiefs said there had been problems around paying locum doctors, suppliers, pension contributions and HMRC and expect payments to be prioritised from financial support being provided and want assurances the problems have been addressed.

The board was also told it hasn’t identified any patient safety concerns at the practices but Blaenau Gwent councillors highlighted a series of complaints from residents.

Dr Ian Jones told the board meeting he’d been in GP in Blaenau Gwent for 20 years and is owed money for locum sessions at Brynmawr in July and August which he said should have been paid in September.

He said he and others are considering taking the partnership to the small claims court, which he said could also impact them in England: “Dr Ahmed and Dr Allison over the next four weeks could have another massive amount of money to find, there’s no question they do owe it and have to find it from somewhere, or potentially they could fail as a partnership which could have a knock on effect then, and in England as well.”

Board chair Ann Lloyd said the board is “aware of that” and “tracking it”.

Council deputy leader Helen Cunningham said patients unable to get GP appointments at Brynmawr had been advised to go to Nevill Hall Hospital, and have faced difficulties in getting test results while John Morgan said people have “had a service that’s not up to scratch.”

Ms McCrystal who was applauded by members of the public when she asked the board why it hadn’t intervened earlier said she wanted to thank public who’ve supported her and councillors, and Blaenau Gwent MS Alun Davies, who’d highlighted problems with the practice. She said she is “overjoyed” the practice has returned to the NHS board.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service attempted to contact the Ahmed/Allinson partnership for comment.