Politicians want eHarley Street GP contract investigation

Controversy around a GP management company has prompted politicians to demand an investigation into a health board and its relationship with the firm.

Most of the GP surgeries managed by eHarley Street in Wales – which has been on the receiving end of concerns about safety, staffing and supply – have been handed back to Aneurin Bevan health board.

Labour ministers and Torfaen politicians Lynne Neagle and Nick Thomas-Symonds said they were still hearing complaints about Pontypool Medical Centre, one of the company’s three remaining surgeries in the health board area.

The GP partnership claimed it was being targeted because it was based in England.

The health board said enhanced monitoring of the surgery had “not identified any contractual breaches or safety concerns”.

The GP management company was criticised by patients, doctors and even the first minister after BBC Wales revealed concerns about how the practices were run.

Calls for an inquiry stretch back to last year when patients – some with terminal illnesses – complained of struggles to access appointments and treatments at surgeries linked to eHarley Street.

The GP partnership, based in Leicestershire, once remotely supported nine Welsh practices, eight in the Aneurin Bevan health board area.

While five have been handed back, GPs behind eHarley Street still manage Gelligaer Surgery, near Ystrad Mynach, Caerphilly county, and Lliswerry Medical Practice in Newport, as well as in Pontypool, which serves about 17,000 patients.

A surgery in Cardiff that was managed by the partnership has also been handed back.

Neagle, the Member of the Senedd for Torfaen and Wales’ education secretary, made the request jointly with Thomas-Symonds, the constituency’s MP and UK government’s EU relations minister.

They wrote to public spending watchdog Audit Wales unhappy with the outcome of 10 meetings with the health board, which told them it had not “identified any immediate patient safety concerns”.

In a joint statement, the politicians said: “Given the months that have gone by, and continued public concerns, we do not believe that this response will provide constituents with the level of reassurance they need.”

They said their letter to the watchdog called for the auditor general to look into the health board’s “engagement of eHarley Street and subsequent management of the contracts”.

They added that they were making no criticism of the staff at the medical centre, “who we know are working with great dedication, often in what we understand are difficult circumstances”.

eHarley Street said the politicians had continued “to escalate the issue through the press while refusing multiple offers for constructive dialogue”.

“It is occurring in the context of a pre-election year, with the political landscape in Wales shifting rapidly,” it added.

The GP partnership complained of “chronic underfunding, outdated funding formulas and burnt-out workforce” in Wales and claimed to have spent “personal and private funds to stabilise operations and recruit clinical staff”.

It welcomed the involvement of Audit Wales, adding: “There is a growing view that the partnership is being targeted, at least in part, because it is an English-led provider operating in Wales.”

In response the two politicians said they make “no apology whatsoever, as democratically elected representatives, for doing our jobs in standing up for our constituents”.

The health board said it “continues to work closely with the partnership, through enhanced monitoring arrangements, in respect of the three practices to ensure contractual compliance and the ongoing delivery of accessible primary care services”.

It added: “The enhanced monitoring has not identified any contractual breaches or safety concerns.”

Audit Wales said it “already has work under way to obtain a better understanding of how the health board is managing the concerns they have set out”.

“Once that initial work has concluded, the auditor general will determine whether any further audit work is necessary on these matters.”

The two politicians welcomed Audit Wales’ approach and said they looked forward to hearing from Auditor General Adrian Crompton “in due course once he has decided the next course of action”.

The Welsh government said it was aware of concerns about Pontypool Medical Practice, but that the health board was “responsible for managing contractual compliance and any necessary support to the practice”.