GPs threaten to pull out of NHS unless serious changes are put in place
General Practitioners (GPs) have for a few years now been under increasing pressure to deliver their services.
And at the NI Local Medical Conference at the weekend, a motion has caused concern far and wide about the future of the GP service in Northern Ireland.
For many, it’s been difficult to get an appointment with your GP, and there is a long wait. And for some, that is the start of a health journey with hospital appointments delayed, and illness waits for no man or woman. Pressures on GPs have been building up for several years.
The NILMC held their conference in the Merchant Hotel and there has been a growing gulf between the NILMC and BMA NI and Health Minister Mike Nesbitt (UUP leader) and the Department of Health.
The motion carried at the conference ‘instructs’ the GPs to set up an alternative strategy working outside the NHS and exiting their 2004 GMS contract.
Opposition Health Spokesman Colin McGrath MLA says Minister must heed GPs vote considering to leave the NHS
SDLP Opposition Health Spokesperson Colin McGrath MLA has said Minister Mike Nesbitt must heed the vote from GPs to explore alternatives to the NHS.
The vote took place as a motion at the Northern Ireland Local Medical Committees (NILMC) Conference at the weekend.
South Down MLA Colin McGrath said: “Nobody – including our GPs – has seriously suggested that they should leave the NHS en masse, but what this vote does tell us is how despondent many GPs feel at the current situation within our health service.
“The Health Minister would be foolish to ignore this warning and, as the frontline of our health service, the voice of GPs should be heard.
“I don’t believe the approach taken at this Conference is the right one and I would ask GPs to reassure the public that there will be no imminent changes to care.
“However, the Health Minister needs to learn to work with GPs who are rightly annoyed at the imposition of a contract at a time when they are finding it harder and harder to deliver the services the public needs.
“The Health Minister needs to get back around the table with GPs and their representatives and work out a funding model and plan that delivers the access the public needs.
“There is serious work to do to reform the health service and address the many challenges, but we won’t get anywhere without GPs on board.”
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GP conference decision was reckless and ill judged says UUP
Ulster Unionist Party comments on the decision taken over the weekend at the Local Medical Committees conference at the Merchant Hotel.
An Ulster Unionist Spokesperson reacted against the conference decision and said: “The decisions flowing from the weekend conference of GPs were not only deeply disappointing – they were astonishingly ill-judged.
“As we enter into the winter months, it is now particularly galling to hear a leading Northern Ireland GP talking about ramping up their actions, including looking at the delivery of some of Northern Ireland’s critical vaccination programmes.
“This most recent escalation is particularly disappointing given that it is coming barely a week after the Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, had managed to secure the necessary political agreement to deliver the long-awaited pay award for health workers – including an extra £12m just for GPs and their staff.
“At a time when the entire health service is under unprecedented pressure, the kind of theatrical and grandstanding gesture coming from some GPs and the BMA helps no one – least of all patients.
“It risks derailing constructive progress just as the Minister was beginning to make real progress to stabilise and reform primary care.
“The Minister won’t be distracted in the very slightest by the vote of confidence in him. What was far more alarming, however, was the vote taken at the same conference to explore moving outside the NHS.
“Such a proposition from GPs is reckless and utterly disconnected from the needs of the public.
“Our NHS is founded on universal access and free at the point of delivery; GPs openly floating the idea of moving away from it undermines confidence and does nothing to address the very real challenges facing primary care.
“To be clear, neither the current Ulster Unionist Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, nor any other Ulster Unionist Health Minister, will allow the privatisation of primary care in Northern Ireland.
“The people of Northern Ireland deserve solutions, not stunts. It is time for GP leaders and their representative body to step back from inflammatory gestures and return to serious, responsible engagement. That’s what patients both expect and deserve.”
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“BMA says ‘winter plan’ is a misguided term and the GPs know the changed demographics and winter pressures each year
Dr Alan Stout, Chjair of the BMA NI, interviewed on the Nolan Show explained that the GPs in Northern Ireland had not been properly consulted as the Minister plans to move ahead with another strategic framework.
Also speaking on another Facebook post, Dr Stout say he did not know why the term ‘winter plan’ is being used. He said: It is not like we are surprised every winter – we know the pressures we face – we know the demographics.
“We need to be included these changes into the system and we have not done it.”
“And one comment on X said: “Doctors are on their knees…”. This may be a dangerous point as the GP system may inevitably head towards a collapse.
Check out the BBC Facebook link for more details:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1492148452041104
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A social media comment says: “The problem with government and politicians is that they want ‘gold’ standard healthcare (and so do the medical and nursing professions) but they want to pay for it at tinplate levels. No honesty with the public.”
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Royal College Of GPs warns that a third of GPs may leave NHS within 5 years
In a revealing report by the Royal College of GPs (RCGP – 10th Nov 2025), the College surveyed over 2100 GPs and GP reguitrars and found that a third of them expected top ave left the NHS within five years time in a “mass exodus”.
The report indicated a number of factors contributing to the difficult state of the NHS for GPs at present including:
• work stress
• escalting work loads
• poor work-life balance
• negative impacts on patient care
• ess time to spend with patients
• and bureaucracy impinging on work loads.
The report also recommended improvements to the IT systems and admin and bureaucratic systems and also recruitment and retention of GPs indicating since 2019 there has only been an additional 387 GPs recruited overall.
The RCGP has called for urgent action to ensure the health service is improved to an acceptable level for the GPs to be able to work comfortably and productively.
Finally, a comment to Down News from a GP who left the NHS to work in the private sector, said: “The reality is that half the population at least, think that GPs are overpaid and don’t work hard enough.
“They don’t understand its the very opposite and public attitudes drive more GPs out of the health service ultimately.
“During the Covid pandemic I worked extra hours in hospitals – up to 90 hours in total some weeks as a junior doctor – I was overworked, underpaid, and nothing seems to have changed since.”
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