Leading doctor warns of GP crisis
Dr Tom Black, will challenge Northern Ireland’s politicians to ‘work with us or work against us’ in a speech to GPs today.
Speaking at the annual Local Medical Committee (LMC) conference taking place in Edinburgh this week, and attended by GPs from right across the UK, Dr Black’s speech follows months of uncertainty for GPs in Northern Ireland over a proposed funding package that would help to alleviate the current crisis in general practice and the move towards a system where GP services would have to be delivered outside the NHS.
Speaking at the conference Dr Black will tell delegates, “The healthcare system in Northern Ireland needs reform, and plans for reform were agreed before Christmas with civil servants and the previous health minister.
“Unfortunately we have since suffered a collapse of our political structures and we have no Assembly, no Executive and no budget. We have found that the only thing worse than having politicians is having no politicians.
“We need to see an investment in general practice of an additional £120million to bring us up to the level of spending in the GP Forward View.”
In his speech Dr Black will make it clear that the pressure GPs were under has pushed them to the current position, and that they would prefer to continue to work within the NHS, “Let me be crystal clear; GPs in Northern Ireland are imbued with the values and principles of the NHS and do not want to leave the NHS to adopt private practice provision.
“GPs in Northern Ireland want to stay and work in the NHS in a system where patients receive a universal service, free at the point of need, funded by taxation.
“We will do this through the twin track approach of offering our cooperation to implement the transformation of the health service in Northern Ireland, transformation that’s planned and needed but also by preparing to leave the NHS to protect and preserve a high quality service for our community.
“These are difficult and dangerous times fraught with risks and challenges. On behalf of NIGPC let me throw down this challenge to the incoming minister for health in Northern Ireland: Work with us or work against us. Your choice, but be clear - we will protect the GP service for patients in Northern Ireland at all costs even if this means leaving the NHS.”
Speaking at the opening of the conference on Thursday, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, chair of the BMA’s UK-wide General Practitioners Committee gave his support for colleagues in Northern Ireland, “I’d like to make special mention of the plight of our colleagues in Northern Ireland, facing a lack of functioning government, hung out to dry with no signs of investment, strategy or support, and to say that the rest of UK GPs are completely behind you in your actions to protect yourselves and patients.
At the meeting delegates from across the UK will debate and vote on the following motion: ‘the people of Northern Ireland have been seriously let down by the failure to invest in general practice and demands that the top priority of any incoming government for Northern Ireland must be to invest in general practice by at least the equivalent investment that has been made in England, Scotland and Wales.’