Funding increase needed to ‘avert GP crisis’

Increased funding for general practice is needed to avert a crisis, a representative body for doctors has said.

The British Medical Association (BMA) Northern Ireland GP committee said practices are unable to offer all the services they would like to due to funding.

They were speaking on Friday as the latest statistics around investment in general practice were published.

In 2023/24, the total investment in general practice – including the reimbursement of drugs dispensed in general practice – was £388 million.

This was described as an increase of 3.6% compared to 2022/23, but a real terms decrease of 2.5%.

It is also recorded that there were higher levels of investment in general practice during the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020/21 and 2021/22.

Dr Ciaran Mullan, BMA NI GP committee deputy chair, said declining funding is making it harder for GP practices to stay open.

“GPs across Northern Ireland are feeling the impact of this real terms funding cut,” he said.

“Declining funding is making it harder for GP practices to stay open; it means we cannot offer all of the services to patients that we would like to. It also means practices might have to employ fewer staff, and that impacts on the ability to get appointments and see your GP.

“GP practices need to be properly funded. The steady erosion of funding has a huge impact on morale and contributes to contract handbacks and our workforce crisis.

“We need to see an increase in the funding for general practice to avert a real crisis.”

He added: “Recent changes to GP funding have created confusion and anger within general practice – and while it is already clear to GPs that their funding is insufficient, seeing it laid clearly in black and white will do nothing to address this growing discontent.”

Responding, the Department of Health said it “recognises the ongoing challenges facing general practice and the impact that increasing demand and workload pressures are having on GPs and their practice teams”.

“The issues that are impacting general practice are complex and will require a sustained long-term approach,” it said.

“The department has continued to boost the capacity of primary care across a number of programmes, including the Primary Care MDT Programme, the General Practice Pharmacy Programme, and the recruitment of Advanced Nurse Practitioners. In 2023/24, £25 million was invested in the Primary Care MDT programme.

“The Minister of Health has made clear his ambition to rebalance how HSC services are delivered, to facilitate a greater proportion of care to be provided in primary and community care, closer to people’s homes and with less reliance on secondary care.

“The 2024-25 budget outcome was extremely disappointing and is likely to have serious consequences for Health and Social Care.

“The additional funding provided was significantly less than what we required and has resulted in 2.3% less funding in 2024-25 than we spent in 2023-24.”