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Calls for a Wales-wide inquiry have been made after a damning Audit Wales report exposed serious failings at Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in the awarding of multimillion pound GP contracts.

The health board, which oversees NHS services across Gwent, failed to sufficiently scrutinise the finances and business plans of a GP partnership linked to a Leicestershire-based healthcare management company.

Doctors Jalil Ahmed and Jonathan Allinson were handed contracts to run eight GP practices in the health board area – including two in Caerphilly County Borough.

The management and back-office functions of these practices were managed by eHarley Street – a company owned by the two doctors, but concerns soon began emerging in 2024 over the financial sustainability and management of the practices, with reports of locum doctors unpaid and patients unable to see a GP.

The Welsh Conservatives have now called for a Wales-wide investigation into GP contract arrangements across the NHS following the Audit Wales report.

Newport and Islwyn MS Natasha Ashgar has written to Wales’ new Plaid Cymru health secretary Mabon ap Gwynfor calling for urgent assurances that similar failings are not happening elsewhere in Wales.

Ms Asghar, who is her parties spokesperson on health, said the report raised “serious concerns about governance, accountability and financial oversight”.

She said: “The apparent failure to properly assess financial stability, workforce capacity and operational risks before handing over millions of pounds worth of contracts has caused disruption for patients and uncertainty for staff.

“The Welsh Government must now establish whether there have been similar incidents in other health boards in the Welsh NHS and ensure robust safeguards are in place to prevent this from happening again.”

During his time as a Senedd Member, former Blaenau Gwent MS Alun Davies urged the then Labour Welsh Government to intervene on the matter after receiving complaints from patients of surgeries run by eHarley Street.

Speaking about the damning Audit Wales report, he told BBC Wales: “The health board needs to review its own actions and hold itself to account, but I want to see an inquiry from the Senedd and I want to see some accountability from the Welsh Government.

“I’ll be writing to all of these people in the coming days to ensure that the people that I used to represent in Blaenau Gwent feel that what happened to them is not simply going to go away, be swept under the carpet, but that there will be real accountability for these failures.”

Doctors’ union the British Medical Association has also said lessons needed to be learned as a result of the health board’s failures.

Dr Gareth Oelmann, chair of the BMA’s Welsh GP Committee said: “Patients and staff should never have been put in a position where they were left dealing with disruption and uncertainty because these contracts were awarded without the scrutiny they required.”

A spokesperson for Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said it accepted all of Audit Wales’ recommendations which are being put in place.

The Welsh Government said: “We have responded to Audit Wales acknowledging the issues raised and will review and update the current guidance to better reflect the modern primary care landscape and evolving GP partnership and business models.”