The BMA has warned that a ‘new neighbourhood model of care’ being planned by the Government in Northern Ireland will not happen without first resolving the current dispute with GPs.
The Department of Health published a document this week committing to ‘establishing a neighbourhood centred system of health and social care’, bringing more services ‘closer to communities’.
The plan said that the Government will invest an additional £65m in community care services in 2025/26 including GP, community pharmacy and general dental services, to ensure the sector is able to provide ‘critical’ health services to the population.
It comes after GPs in Northern Ireland voted in favour of taking collective action, following this year’s first-ever contract imposition.
The country’s health minister Mike Nesbitt imposed the GMS contract for 2025/26 on GP practices for the first time earlier this year, despite the offer being overwhelmingly rejected by the profession.
The plan is designed to achieve £300m in savings in 2025/26, in addition to the £200m delivered in 2024/25, the Department added.
It said: ‘By March 2026, working with partners we will have developed a new neighbourhood model for primary, community and social care, which will deliver greater levels of care for citizens, including children and families, in their communities, alongside a funding plan to support delivery from April 2026.’
This model will see GPs and their federations, community pharmacy, voluntary organisations, trusts, independent providers and local government working closely together in formal partnership to provide ‘integrated care’, according to the plan.
The Department also said that this will require a new contractual model for GMS and that they have invited GPs in NI to work with them ‘to design and negotiate such a model’.
But Dr Alan Stout, a GP in Belfast and chair of BMA’s Northern Ireland council, said that the plan will ‘simply will not happen’ without first resolving the dispute ‘as a matter of urgent priority’.
He said: ‘This ambitious plan is consistent with every other reform and transformation plan over the last two decades. The minister is entirely correct that this is a watershed year for the NHS.
‘It is long past time for proper action to save our health and social care services which need whole system change, and ensuring we have staff and resource where we want our patients – close to home.
‘However, none of these “commitments” can be delivered without properly engaging with and valuing our workforce.
‘A “new neighbourhood model of care” simply will not happen without first resolving the dispute with GP partners over the 2025/26 GMS contract as a matter of urgent priority.
‘We look forward to engaging with the minister on resolving the GP partner dispute on the 2025/26 GMS contract and on the roll-out of this plan.’
Mr Nesbitt said: ‘This a defining and watershed year for our health service. We have to deliver on reform and waiting list investment, while at the same time securing efficiencies and savings on a scale not seen before. There are both challenges and opportunities of huge significance.
‘At the heart of the reform agenda must be concrete progress on neighbourhood care, bringing more services as close as possible to people’s front doors.
‘This has been a long-term objective but meaningful delivery is required, including a new model of primary care and early intervention.’
Following a referendum of the profession earlier this year, the BMA said that 98.7% of those who took part in a referendum voted ‘yes’ to collective action that will see GP practices across the country take the ‘unprecedented’ step of withdrawing some unfunded and non-contractual services which take up ‘a significant amount of time away from patient care’.
Some of the actions which practices will take as part of this include limiting patient consultations and serving notice on any voluntary work.
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