AQW 54528/11-16

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 19/02/2016
Answered On Date: 23/03/2016
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to detail the annual rate of retirement for local GPs; and for his assessment of whether the increase in GP training places is sufficient to mitigate this rate.

Answer:

The annual rate of retirement for local GPs is not available. In 2014 24.8% of GPs in Northern Ireland were aged over 55.

The additional 20 annual GP training places is only one of a range of initiatives which I have recently announced and which I consider will ease the work pressures on GPs and thereby encourage individuals to continue to work in Primary Care. These include a five-year investment initiative that will put close to 300 pharmacists in GP practices by 2021; and funding of £300,000 during 2015/16 to help retain the existing GP workforce and to encourage GPs who have left practice to return. I have also established a Departmental working group to consider the delivery of GP-led Primary Care services.