AQW 2843/22-27

Ms Paula Bradshaw
Alliance Party
South Belfast

Tabled Date: 05/09/2022
Answered On Date: 22/09/2022
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Health what budget has been allocated during the current financial year to GP services for people without a permanent address.

Answer:

As per the GMS contract, the SPPG provide funding to support practices that provide GMS care to patients deemed to be ‘temporary residents’.

GP Practices may, if their list is open, accept a person as a temporary resident if they are satisfied that the person is temporarily resident away from his normal place of residence and is not being provided with essential services (or their equivalent) under any other arrangement in the place where he is temporarily residing.

A person shall be regarded as temporarily resident in a place if, when they arrive in that place, they intend to stay there for more than 24 hours but not more than three months.

The regional budget set for GP Practices to provide services to Temporary Patients in 2022/23 is £722k.