Health board criticised for allowing GP company to take on £10m in contracts 

A health board should have applied greater ‘scrutiny’ to a controversial GP company before handing it several GP practice contracts, a public spending watchdog has said. 

Audit Wales criticised Aneurin Bevan University Health Board (ABUHB) for awarding contracts worth £10.1m to GP company eHarley Street Primary Care Solutions. 

The England-based company subsequently faced complaints over late payments to dozens of locum GP staff and has since handed back all of its Welsh GP practice contracts. 

Publishing its review of the relationship between the health board and the company, Audit Wales said: ‘The Partnership has previously managed a practice in Lliswerry without any apparent concerns and was the only bidder for several of the contracts. 

‘Nonetheless, the Health Board should have had a greater appreciation of the risk associated with a single Partnership taking on so many new practices over a short timeframe.  

‘It should also have undertaken greater due diligence checks on the Partnership’s business model and applied greater scrutiny to its business cases and financial plans.’ 

Such checks would have given the health board an opportunity to ask eHarley Street about its business model including ‘the establishment of multiple companies in a short space of time and businesses which have been dissolved shortly after creation’. 

It added that the health board ‘could have been more cognisant of the potential risks in awarding a total of £8.1m to a single supplier’, for the six vacant practices of of the eight, ‘given this far exceeds the £1m threshold for Ministerial approval that is applied to single contracts.’ 

The report follows demands from a local MP and MS last year for Audit Wales to investigate the relationship between the company and health board.  

The GP partnership of Dr Jalil Ahmed and Dr Jonathan Allinson handed back its three remaining GP practice contracts in Wales last month, having formerly managed nine Welsh practices. 

Last year, Welsh politicians said that eHarley Street owed money to more than 40 GPs, with two ‘owed in excess of £300,000 from contracts that haven’t been fulfilled by eHarley Street’.   

When concerns were raised in late 2024, the health board said the GMS contracts for the practices were held with Drs Ahmed and Allinson rather than with eHarley Street Primary Care Solutions.  

However, GPs and staff told Pulse that day-to-day management of the surgeries sits with eHarley Street, based in England, and the Welsh practices are listed under ‘our practices’ on the company’s website (since deactivated).  

ABUHB subsequently published its own report into the issue, acknowledging ‘financial challenges’ experienced by the company and the ‘failure to pay locum staff’. 

The report said NHS Counter Fraud had found ‘no evidence of fraudulent activity’, but it did criticise eHarley Street for causing ‘financial concerns for staff employed by the Partnership’. 

‘Concerns have been raised about underpayments to HMRC and also non-payment of invoices from locum doctors in practices run by the Partnership. Health Board staff confirmed that they have seen evidence of a payment plan from the Partnership to address HMRC underpayments. However, we have not been able to determine whether outstanding locum doctor invoices have been paid.’ 

It said eHarley Street’s decision to hand back several contracts at once had ‘placed the Health Board in a challenging position’ because it had to ‘take over the management of these practices at relatively short notice’. 

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said it ‘acknowledges’ that ‘further scrutiny could have been applied to financial and workforce plans’. 

A health board spokesperson told Pulse: ‘We welcome the Auditor General’s report and have accepted all of its recommendations, which are already being put in place. 

‘Our priority throughout has been to keep GP services running safely and consistently for patients, particularly during a period of significant pressure on general practice. Where practices have changed hands, we have acted quickly to maintain care and protect patient safety. 

‘The Health Board acknowledges the report’s findings that, while contracts were awarded in line with existing policy and national regulations, there is learning to be taken and that further scrutiny could have been applied to financial and workforce plans, and the cumulative risks associated with awarding multiple contracts to a single GP partnership. 

‘We remain committed to working with our contracted GPs, practice staff, and partners to provide stable, high-quality services for communities across Gwent.’ 

Pulse has contacted eHarley Street representatives to comment on the report.