The call comes after it was revealed ICBs have not been given funding to cover the costs of their redundancies.

Liberal Democrat health and social care spokesperson, Helen Morgan, said: ‘The Government's planned NHS reorganisation has been rushed through at a speed Usain Bolt would be proud of. It appears no one has stopped and had a think about how they will actually enact these changes, and if they expect frontline services to pick up the tab.

‘Ministers have provided no impact assessment, subjected themselves to minimal Parliamentary scrutiny, and now risk punching a £1bn blackhole into NHS budgets, threatening vital services and patient safety.'

In her letter to the NAO, Morgan said ministers' plans needed to be investigated as the scale and speed of the changes were ‘exceptional' and gave rise to ‘serious concerns' about governance, value for money, legality and operational risk in the absence of formal scrutiny and safeguards.

Morgan added: ‘What we have been left with is a mess from top to bottom, with no real planning going into how these redundancies will be forced through without harming patients and shedding desperately needed money from frontline services. It is time the NAO and PAC investigated this rushed job and forced the Government to face real scrutiny rather than let them freelance without thought for the price patients will pay.'

An NAO spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm we have received the correspondence from the Liberal Democrats. 

‘We will carefully examine the request, consider the best way to take this matter forwards and respond in due course.'

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘We inherited a broken NHS that was failing patients. It needs investment and reform to transform it into a modern, efficient health service that gets proper value for taxpayers' money and treats patients on time again.

‘Cutting unnecessary bureaucracy and waste will allow us to invest even further in the frontline, to cut waiting times and deliver our Plan for Change.'