Two Ulster Unionist MLAs have jointly called on the Stormont Executive to prioritise new measures to improve access to local GP services. The call came following a meeting between MLAs Jo-Anne Dobson and Robbie Butler and representatives from the British Medical Association (BMA).
Ulster Unionist Health Spokesperson and Upper Bann MLA Mrs Dobson said:
"Our GPs are the gatekeepers of our health service and over the summer months I have been holding a series of meetings with representatives from eminent industry bodies including the Royal College of GPs (RCGP) and the BMA.
"It is now inevitable that if the current failure to take urgent action to resolve this crisis continues it will see our local GP services collapse. This is the clear message coming from GPs themselves and their professional bodies the BMA and RCGP.
"Health managers and indeed the Health Minister, must move away from their current position of simply firefighting and reacting, and instead must take steps to resolve the underlying issues affecting all practices. This is the only course of action which will avoid collapse of the service altogether. A collapse which will inevitably affect public health and result in people coming to unnecessary harm.
"Action must include allowing GP Federations to become the catalyst of positive change within the system and addressing the week by week pressurised situations being felt across our local practices.
"Robbie and I both sit on the Stormont Health Committee which holds the Minister and Executive to account and we are both concerned that the Department is continuing to adopt a 'hands off' approach to this issue."
Lagan Valley MLA Robbie Butler, who is the UUP Spokesperson on Mental Health, said:
"We have met with the professionals and have listened very carefully to what they have to say to us. They have sensible solutions which will help to reverse and resolve the current crisis in primary care.
"Without a new approach it is very clear that we will experience an unprecedented collapse of the service - this is not scaremongering, it is the considered and measured views of professionals who truly care for their patients and who want to see action taken now rather than waiting months into the future when it could well be too late."
