Debate contribution: GP Services in Fermanagh
Debate contribution by Miss Jemma Dolan on .
- MLA
- Miss Jemma Dolan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 10 September 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Adjournment
- Heading
- GP Services in Fermanagh
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4517862
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank my party colleague Áine Murphy for securing this afternoon's Adjournment debate. Primary care in a wider sense is generally the first point of contact with the health service for those who become unwell, providing 95% of the care that people need throughout their lifetime. Let me therefore, first off, acknowledge the enormous contribution made by those working in primary care.
While primary care also includes our nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists, social workers, mental health practitioners and community pharmacists, our GPs have shouldered the burden of escalating demand, a declining workforce and real-terms funding cuts like never before.
As Deborah Erskine said, the recent NI Audit Office report on access to general practice found that almost one in three local practices sought crisis support in the past four years. The absence of a specific workforce strategy for general practice has resulted in the failure to train, recruit, retain and reward staff, which has consequently led to a deterioration of service provision and limited progress on the roll-out of MDTs in local primary care settings. That is the foundation of the health service. Significant levels of funding and transformation are therefore required. With more than one in 10 GPs in the North leaving the profession last year, the need for support to preserve and protect the existing general practice workforce must be addressed as a matter of urgency. The sense of urgency feels even more pressing in Fermanagh, where we have all heard and experienced stories of failure to get GP appointments. While people experience difficulties during the day, it was brought to my attention that the whole of Fermanagh was left without out-of-hours GP cover for at least 36 hours one weekend in July, with some constituents being left with no alternative but to pay for a private GP appointment. I know that the Health Minister cannot fix our GP crisis overnight, but I wrote to him highlighting that cause for huge concern and asking that it not happen again. People cannot afford to pay for it. Inevitably, our health will deteriorate if the two-tier health service continues.
349 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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