One of the big health stories in Wales in recent months has been the fall out over a private firm running GP surgeries in my region. Scores of doctors claim they have not received money from eHarley Street for locum shifts they have worked. This firm was tasked with running a number of surgeries in the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board in 2023 but it appears to have gone badly wrong already.

I spoke to one locum GP who lives in Monmouthshire but is driving two hours each way to work at a surgery in Pembrokeshire because she says she is owed thousands of pounds by the firm. She said she refuses to work for free anymore – and who can blame her.

The firm disputes some of the claims that have been levelled at them but what is clear is that the trust between them and many doctors has completely broken down. When our local surgeries are crying out for GPs, it is crazy that good, hard-working GPs feel they have no alternative but to travel hours each way to work. I wonder how many GPs are travelling over the border to work in England because of this debacle?

News has since emerged that eHarley Street is handing back the keys to most of the surgeries it ran in the Gwent area. Questions remain about the salaries owed to doctors, how trust will be restored with GPs and how will patients get the service and treatment they deserve under the new management at the affected surgeries.

I have written to the Health Board to seek answers but I have also called on the Labour Government show some leadership, step in and sort the matter out. The Labour Government has responsibility for health in Wales and cannot divorce itself from such matters, especially when they affect so many patients and doctors. It also raises questions about the wisdom of involving the private sector in the NHS.

Plaid Cymru believes that things should generally be handled in-house but Labour has increasingly spoken about their willingness to involve the private sector in the NHS. The whole episode with eHarley Street illustrates the dangers of placing too much faith in private firms to solve the often self-inflicted problems by government of poor workforce planning, poor relations with staff and mismanagement.

Patients and staff deserve better.