AQW 2028/16-21
Mr Stewart Dickson
Alliance Party
East Antrim
Tabled Date: 29/06/2016
Answered On Date: 07/07/2016
Priority Written: No
Question:
To ask the Minister of Health (i) for her assessment of the current provision of GP in and out of hours services; and (ii) to outline what is being done to reduce the risks and pressure on these services.
Answer:
GPs are an essential part of our health and social care system. They provide high quality advice and treatment to the population here and, together with the wider primary care team, play a vital part in supporting people to manage and improve their own health and wellbeing. However, I recognise that in hours and out of hours GP services are under pressure. GP workload has increased significantly over the last decade, largely as a result of a growing and ageing population. And as we seek, rightly, to treat people as close to home as possible, GPs are seeing more people with multiple complex conditions and are managing these patients in the primary care setting. The GP workforce is also changing—a number of GPs may choose to retire over the next five years and it is important that younger doctors see general practice as an attractive career option. While GPs across the north are experiencing these pressures, I know that the challenges are particularly acute in rural areas and in smaller GP practices. All of these challenges are reflected in the findings of the BMA’s recent General Practice in Crisis report. I have noted the actions identified by the BMA as being necessary to address the challenges facing general practice, and indeed action is already underway in a number of these areas. There has been significant investment in general practice over recent years aimed at increasing capacity, developing new models of care to help meet rising demand for services, increasing the GP workforce, and building the wider primary care team. In 2015/16, an investment package of up to £5.1 million was agreed for general medical services, including additional funding to build capacity in GP out of hours services, to increase skills mix in general practice, to support GP Federations, and to support improvements in premises. Further non-recurrent funding was also provided in 2015/16 to invest in GP Federations, to develop a leadership training package for GPs, and to pilot a phone and online triage system. In 2016/17 my Department will invest a further £7 million in general practice, including £2m to help meet additional demand, £1.7m to continue to rollout the practice-based pharmacists programme, and £160,000 to develop online booking and repeat prescribing systems. In addition to this, further investment of £1.2 million per year is being provided to increase the number of GP training places available here each year to 85, up from 65. A working group set up to make recommendations aimed at addressing the difficulties facing general practice reported in March. The findings of that working group, and the actions identified by the BMA’s recent report, will inform my consideration of the next steps required to ensure that everyone here has access to high quality, sustainable GP services.
|