GPs in Northern Ireland have voted to carry out collective action after a GP contract was imposed on the profession, the BBC has reported.
The vote passed with 98.7% in favour, based on participation of almost 80% of GP partners in the devolved nation.
GPs voted to withdraw some non-funded services from NHS primary care.
“We have been warning for well over a decade now that general practice was not being funded to meet the needs of growing patient lists and that failure to act on this would have consequences on patient care,” said Dr Frances O’Hagan, chair of the British Medical Association’s General Practice Committee (GPC) for Northern Ireland.
One sessional GP told NASGP: “They offered us 50p per patient a year as if it was a huge funding increase and expected a multi-point plan for increased access, and they still haven’t sorted our indemnity – we are still paying for it ourselves with no crown indemnity unlike the rest of the UK.”
The nation has struggled to support its GPs for several years. In 2023 GPs at two surgeries in Northern Ireland handed back their contracts to the local healthcare trust after recruitment failed and in 2021, GPs in Northern Ireland warned colleagues in England, Scotland and Wales that changes to the rules around indemnity costs could push much-needed doctors out of the door.
Dr Richard Fieldhouse, NASGP chair, said: “This action will have come as no surprise whatsoever to the government in Northern Ireland if they have been paying any attention at all towards what’s been happening across the Irish Sea.
“Particularly galling will be the lack of a parallel service along the lines of NHS Resolution, which at least in part might have provided better will at the negotiating table.
“And if what has happened in England is anything to go by, once collective action has started, the good will borne through previously performing unfunded work is unlikely to ever return.”