General practices in Northern Ireland are on their knees, says DAUK\u2019s GP committee after the Department of Health confirmed it would impose the contract for 2025\/26. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The decision comes after the BMA published the results of a referendum, with 99.6 per cent of GPs voting against the contract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The BMA had called for an improved offer, including money to cover the increase in National Insurance contributions and rising costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But health minister Mike Nesbitt, speaking in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said negotiations had reached \u2018an endpoint\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr Steve Taylor, DAUK\u2019s GP spokesperson, responding on social media platform X<\/a>, said that GPs in Northern Ireland see more than 10 per cent of the population each week and were asking for a one per cent uplift \u2013 or 11p per patient per day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said: \u201cGPs in Northern Ireland are on their knees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey are trying really hard to improve services for patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYet the government declined a request for 11p per day per patient to improve services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWho\u2019s to blame for poor services? Simply, it\u2019s not GPs is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPrimary care in Northern Ireland is under extreme pressure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLong-term trends such as an ageing population and growing waiting lists in secondary care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese challenges have pushed many practices into crisis. In the past 4 years, 98 practices have sought support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn excess of 200,000 appointments per week take place in Northern Ireland GP practices \u2013 more than 10 per cent of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGPs get \u00a3168 per patient per year for everything \u2013 an average of five appointments, prescriptions, letters, referrals, monitoring, staff costs, buildings, electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe spend on healthcare in Northern Ireland is \u00a34,300 per person per year and GPs get just four per cent yet see 10 per cent of the population weekly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe ask was \u00a340 per person \u2013 less than one per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr Frances O\u2019Hagan, chair of NIGPC (BMA’s NI GP committee), said: \u201cThis is the first time a sitting health minister in Northern Ireland has chosen to impose the GMS contract on GPs, so to say we are shocked and angry at this decision would be an understatement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have been warning for well over a decade now that general practice cannot continue in the way it has been – trying to meet increasing demand with fewer GPs and insufficient resource, leading to collapse by contract hand backs and closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRather than trying to address this imbalance, the Minister seems content with the status quo to continue. All GPs want to do is deliver a service to their patients that meets their needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The funding we require would not only do that, but it would also provide the level of access they deserve, and we want to give. The contract being imposed by the minister will not allow us to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe results of our referendum were extremely clear: 99.6% of GPs do not think the contract offer that is now being imposed is enough to stabilise or save general practice in Northern Ireland. \u201cWe will now consult with our members to decide the next steps.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Please support our work by contributing to our crowd funder<\/a> or by becoming a member<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" General practices in Northern Ireland are on their knees, says DAUK\u2019s GP committee after the Department of Health confirmed it would impose the contract for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dauk-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3213,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1379\/revisions\/3213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dauk.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Primary care<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
The BMA<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Referendum result<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n