FIFTY GP surgeries in the north of Ireland are threatened with closure, the British Medical Association (BMA) warned yesterday.
Sixteen surgeries have handed contracts back to Stormont’s Department of Health (DoH) in the past year, said Dr Tom Black, the BMA in NI’s chair, yesterday.
A further 30 practices are ‘in crisis’, he added.
The warning came as the Western Trust confirmed it will temporarily take over the Racecourse Medical Group GP practice in Derry.
The trust will run services there from 1st June.
Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle’s The North West Today, Dr Black said the number of practices at risk is continuing to rise.
‘Last summer, the BMA said we had 20 practices in Northern Ireland at risk, in crisis. People criticised us for coming out and saying that and yet 16 of those practices have since handed back their contracts.
‘At the moment, we have an additional 30 practices in crisis, that’s 50 in total.
‘We are worried a lot of those practices will hand back their contracts.
‘A failure to adequately address underfunding, increasing workloads and recruitment difficulties are putting surgeries under increasing pressures,’ Dr Black warned.
Racecourse Medical in Derry has about 4,800 patients. It handed back its contract in December – one of two surgeries in Derry to do so in recent months.
Dr Black said contracts are being handed back because there are serious difficulties in finding a replacement when a doctor ‘retires or emigrates, or resigns’.
Young doctors are being offered more attractive terms and conditions in places like Australia or the Republic of Ireland, he added, and workloads are also increasing.
‘In any other industry you would have increased the workforce – that hasn’t happened because the funding isn’t there,’ he said.
‘From a financial point of view, it is very difficult to run a practice.
‘We do need to lay this at the politicians’ feet and say, “You have underfunded for a decade and a half, we told you this was going to happen, it has happened, you need to fix it now”.’
