Minister announces £5.5m package ‘to help strengthen GP services through winter’

A £5.5 million package to ease pressure on GP services in Northern Ireland has been unveiled by Health Minister Robin Swann.

The British Medical Association (BMA) has welcomed the funding package but warned it would not be a solution to problems faced by practices.

The package includes £1 million in a new Attract, Recruit, Retain scheme to help hire GPs in hard-to-recruit areas.

It also boosts support teams for GP practices which are experiencing difficulty by an additional £680,000 and includes investment of £3 million to support practices across Northern Ireland through the winter period.

Mr Swann said: “The pressures in primary care services are caused in large part by historic underinvestment over a number of years which has left the system struggling to meet ever-growing demand.

“My department is taking action to address the root causes of these issues in service.

“This includes increasing the number of GP training places in Northern Ireland to an all-time high of 121 and providing an additional £1.5 million investment to support continued staff recruitment.”

He added: “That said, there is a need to do more in the short-term to help address the pressures in GP services, and ensure that people can still access their doctor when they need them.

“The package of support I am announcing will help strengthen GP services through the winter period, as well as providing targeted help to those practices that are most at risk.

“Planning for this winter is ongoing across health and social care.”

Northern Ireland GP committee chair Dr Alan Stout said: “Today’s announcement from the minister is welcome and we can see that he understands the problems we are facing; it will hopefully help in the medium to long-term.

“But unfortunately it will not be a solution to the problems many practices are experiencing right now.

“The Attract, Recruit, Retain scheme may help practices recruit new GPs but with a well-documented ageing workforce, and with a quarter of our GPs over the age of 55, we need to ensure that we retain GPs as well in order to stabilise and grow general practice.”