A GP management company criticised by patients, doctors and the Frst Minister is handing back the remaining surgeries it runs saying its operating model is ‘not suited’ to the stucture of primary care in Wales.

Concerns over safety, staffing and supply at practices managed by Leicestershire-based e-Harley Street were first raised in 2024 when councillors in Blaenau Gwent called for a meeting with Gwent health chiefs amid concerns that primary care in Blaenau Gwent was a ‘mess’ with patients struggling to see a GP in Brynmawr.

Worried councillors said they’d heard countless reports that appointments were difficult to find at medical practices in Brynmawr and Tredegar which were managed by eHarley Street, with Senedd and Westminster politicians adding their voices to the campaign.

With patients unable to access primary medical care, locum doctors reported they were unwilling to work at the surgeries managed by eHarley Street, because of claims they were owed about £250,000 in unpaid wages and also warned of ‘dangerous’ staffing levels and ‘potentially catastrophic’ supply shortages at practices managed by the company.

All the claims were denied by eHarley Street at the time.

As the crisis deepened First Minister Eluned Morgan was called upon to intervene and during first minister’s questions told Senedd Members “We will not tolerate this kind of behaviour and a lack of respect for the contract that has been signed.”

In February 2025 the company handed a number of surgeries including those at Brynmawr and Blaenavon back to health board control and now it has told Aneurin Bevan University Health Board it is handing back its remaining three surgeries at Gelligaer, Lliswerry and Pontypool.

The health board said it would work ‘to ensure a smooth transition’ while e-Harley Street said its ‘operating model is not suited to the current structure of primary care in Wales’.