Royal College of GPs stands by free publicly-funded care after BMA Northern Ireland chief calls for merger with private-led Republic of Ireland model
The Royal College of GPs (RCGP) has rejected the idea of having a pay-on-demand GP system, in response to a call for Northern Ireland’s current free system to be merged with the private-led one south of the border.
The RCGP was reacting to comments made by Dr Alan Stout, the chairman of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) Northern Ireland Council, who suggested that such a move could pull the Northern Ireland system out of its current "death spiral".
As the News Letter reported, Dr Stout’s call for an island-wide GP system has been rejected by the DUP, UUP, and TUV, as well as by the UUP health minister.
In the Republic, over half of all GP patients use a private service which they pay for per appointment, while the remainder are entitled to free care.
Appointments generally cost between 45 and 65 euro, equivalent roughly to £40 to £57.
Dr Stout's call led the DUP health spokeswoman Diane Dodds to ask: “The fundamental principle of the NHS is healthcare free at the point of delivery. Has Dr Stout renounced this belief on behalf of the BMA?”
Now the RCGP has told the News Letter: “RCGP NI supports a health service free at the point of need.
"The reality is that general practice has been chronically underfunded over the last decade, which has created a mismatch between demand and capacity.
"GPs here deliver over 200,000 consultations per week, and we’re struggling to meet the needs of our patients.
"Despite repeated warnings and calls for support, GPs are expected to continue to deliver more, with no meaningful increase in resources.
"In 2023, the NI Audit Office reported that just 5.4% of the health budget was allocated to general practice, a gross underinvestment given the volume and complexity of care GPs provide every day.
"A significant and sustained uplift in funding is essential to provide stability for practices.
“It is vital that we close this gap to secure a service that delivers for our patients.”
It added: “It’s important that we stabilise the services we have, to deliver the best care for patients.
“GPs in Northern Ireland want exactly what patients want in terms of capacity and access to care.
"We have the highest level of health inequalities across the UK and our ongoing call for increased investment is to ensure that delivery of a quality GP service to patients is not dependent on the ability to pay.”
The BMA said it had nothing further to add on the issue.
It is the UK's trade union for doctors.
The RCGP meanwhile says it is the professional membership body for GPs, which “maintains professional standards and oversees GP education”.
It has about 1,400 members in Northern Ireland, and many of them are also members of the BMA.
On Sunday, Dr Stout had posed on X (formerly Twitter): "Let’s start the debate. We need an all Ireland GP service based on their medical card contract. They’ve solved and improved service and outcomes while we get much worse…"
He went on to say "let’s just go all Ireland with [our] healthcare and then let the politics catch up" adding: "We’re in a death spiral here."
Facing criticism of his position, Dr Stout told the News Letter: “This is all about health service and health outcomes, not constitutional change.
"Our NHS is really struggling and we need big change such as suggested in Bengoa and the reports preceding it.
"The lack of that change has resulted in the difficulties we see and we face and we need to look to other systems, including the Irish system, to see and learn what they are doing better and how they are achieving better outcomes.”