A crisis caused by a lack of funding, pay issues and a National Insurance hike will see less doctors available to treat patients at the north’s GP practices, it has been warned.
Calls for better funding for practices and pay to match that available in Britain were made on Saturday by the chair of the British Medical Association NI’s General Practitioners Committee, Dr Frances O’Hagan.
She was speaking at the NI Local Medical Conference in Belfast and said GP practices were at risk of closure if funding issues were not resolved.
Dr O’Hagan said that following negotiations with the Department of Health for the GMS (General Medical Services) contract with the north’s GPs for 2024/25, the BMA achieved the “majority” of what it asked for.
However, she criticised the denial in the north of a full pay uplift as recommended for GPs across the UK by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB).
BMI NI met with health minister Mike Nesbitt on Thursday but were told Stormont is not in a position to make the full pay award.
BMI NI char Dr Alan Stout has called the situation “totally unacceptable”.
At Saturday’s conference, Dr O’Hagan said of the pay uplift: “This must be paid in full. The other three devolved nations have been paid and there has been an above DDRB award in Scotland. Anything less here means that GPs in Northern Ireland fall even further behind our colleagues in the other nations.
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She also warned that the UK government’s recent budget, in which Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an increase in National Insurance (NI) contributions made by employers, would impact services for patients.
The NHS is exempt from the hike, but GP practices are not, despite delivering NHS services.
“GPs will have to find the money to pay the increased contributions, and it will cost practices tens of thousands of pounds,” Dr O’Hagan said.
“This will lead to reductions in staffing, including salaried GPs, practice nurses, and admin staff, or even an increase in practice handbacks.
“None of these options are good for GPs and none of these options are good for patient access. These costs must be either offset by a reversal of the decision by the Chancellor, or with additional funding.”
She called the spending in GP services from the north’s health budget - 5.4% - “unbelievably low considering we do in excess of 90% of the consultations in the NHS in Northern Ireland”.
“Our work is actually increasing because of the lengthy waiting times, our patients keep coming back to us whilst they’re waiting to be seen in secondary care,” she said.
“We need commitment from the Department, that this percentage will increase so we can provide a better service to our patients.”
Dr O’Hagan warned retaining existing GPs should also be a priority alongside training new GPs.
The Department of Health has been contacted for a response.
