Debate contribution: GP Services in Fermanagh

Debate contribution by Mrs Deborah Erskine on 10 September 2024.

MLA

Mrs Deborah Erskine

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

10 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Adjournment

Heading

GP Services in Fermanagh

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4517860

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Áine Murphy, my constituency colleague, for securing the Adjournment debate, which is vital for our rural area. Pressures in our GP services are nothing new. For at least a decade, we have been warned of the consequences of underfunding in primary care. In the west, we have unique challenges in attracting the GP workforce. Our constituency is one of the most beautiful in the UK. We are proud of our area, yet it is a rural area and there are challenges to overcome. We need to do more to promote our constituency as a place to live and work. We also need to support the GP workforce that has remained in the area. Recruitment and retention are two sides of the same coin. In the past, I have asked Health Ministers whether they were minded to implement measures that might incentivise GPs to live and work in rural areas. It has been done elsewhere. The Member for South Down was on the Health Committee when we discussed initiatives like that. It could be a measure to address some of the issues in rural areas across Northern Ireland. In the summer, we heard that there were difficulties in accessing locums to keep services going. There is no disputing that, as local representatives, we hear week in and week out of the challenges that people have in accessing GP surgery appointments. Recent findings from the NI Audit Office reveal concerning trends. Almost one in three local GP practices has sought crisis support in the past four years. That is an alarming statistic that underscores the urgent need for action. We cannot afford to overlook the challenges facing the primary care workforce. Consider that in the context of Lisnaskea health centre, which my colleague referenced. Recently, as the Minister will be aware, posters were put up outside it. What was achieved by doing that? Frankly, all that it did was demoralise and hurt the staff who work there. They are trying to do their best in difficult circumstances and, as was referenced, in a building that is crumbling around them. I also ask the Minister to give us an update on the medical centre, because it will be a welcome addition to our constituency and to health provision in my area. My hope is that we can develop multidisciplinary teams and aid service provision in one of the most service-starved parts of our constituency. MLAs in our area face a situation in which we have a GP workforce that is retiring, with little sign of anyone coming forward to take on the mantle in GP practices. I pay tribute to practices in our area and thank them for the work that they do alongside the excellent community pharmacy provision. My practice at Brookeborough and Tempo Primary Care Services was one of 13 practices that had to hand back its contract in 2022-23. The Western Trust stepped in to provide a service for 8,000 patients who were on the books, but the trust's stepping in is an unsustainable situation. In the spring, we heard that the Minister had come to an agreement with GPs on new contractual arrangements. Has that made a difference to GPs coming to Fermanagh and South Tyrone and entering practice in areas? I come to another question, Minister. It concerns a common complaint that MLAs receive, and it is not unique to Fermanagh and South Tyrone. In 2022, the then Health Minister announced that £1·7 million was to be invested in telephone services. I have asked several times where that money has gone and for a breakdown of the surgeries that received money for those services, but, as yet, I have not had an answer. Perhaps we need more accountability around where money is directed in the system. I ask about that because practices have closed in Fermanagh and South Tyrone or have been amalgamated, and that places a burden on practices, with increased calls to the surgery. We need infrastructure in place to cope with the demand. As I mentioned, we need to see MDT development in the south-west federation area. When services transform and are reshaped in our area, access to services at the first port of call — our primary care settings — will be truly transformative. That brings me on to a developing situation, which is not in Fermanagh but in south Tyrone. I refer to the Moy GP practice. MLAs in the Chamber will have received correspondence on the issue last week. We were informed that the district nursing team would be relocated to the South Tyrone Hospital in Dungannon without any planned warning having been given to the practice. GP practices such as the Moy practice rely on the district nursing team to support the most vulnerable members of the community. Those nurses are on-site in a more immediate way in our practices, so I would like to understand from the Minister whether that is part of a wider reshaping of district nursing teams across the trust areas or, indeed, whether it is unique to the Southern Trust area. The problems will not be addressed overnight: I get that. The importance, however, of delivering real change cannot be overstated. I therefore impress on the Minister the need to address the specific concerns in the rural area of Fermanagh and South Tyrone. That should include innovative ways to address the difficulties with GP services in our constituency.

916 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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