Health Minister announces £5.5M package to support GPs
It includes £1 million in a new Attract, Recruit, Retain scheme
A £5.5 million package which aims to ease pressure on GP services has been announced by Northern Ireland’s Health Minister.
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.
Robin 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."
The British Medical Association (BMA) has welcomed the funding package but warned it would not be a solution to problems faced by practices.
BMA NI GP committee chair Dr Alan Stout said today’s (Monday) announcement shows the health minister “understands the problems we are facing” and expressed his hoped that the money will help in the medium to long term.
However, added that “it will not be a solution to the problems many practices are experiencing right now.”
He said: “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.
“MDTs have helped many practices and patients but we really need to see it rolled out right across Northern Ireland so there is parity for all patients.
“We welcome the plans to address the indemnity issue.
“We have raised this issues this causes with the Minister and Department many times and it is good to see that recognised and look forward to seeing the full plan in November.
“Finally, meaningful change will require proper planning, and this will require not only a budget for this year, but also a multiyear budget.
“This requires an executive and strong political leadership. We will continue to see deterioration of our NHS until this happens.”
Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew has also welcomed the health minister’s latest financial intervention and has also called for the restoration of the Executive.
The party’s health spokesperson said: "It’s welcome that GP practices will receive a £5.5 million package of financial support to help ease some of the pressures facing our health service this winter.
"Many patients are finding it hard to see a doctor and any short-term support is welcome, but it falls short of what needs to be done.
“We need an Executive up and running now so that parties can work together to invest £1 billion in the health to tackle waiting lists, fund services and start to fix our health service.
“The DUP should end its cruel boycott of the Executive and get back to work now.”
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