Northern Ireland GP committee agrees changes to ‘simplified’ contract

The general medical services (GMS) contract has been agreed by the BMA Northern Ireland GP committee after negotiation of ‘much-needed’ simplification of current arrangements.

The committee were able to secure £5 million in funding for an indemnity solution for this year as well as securing a commitment from the Department and SPPG to further review the contract for subsequent years.

To ensure there was some much-needed simplification of current arrangements the committee agreed that a significant number of items could be moved into core funding, which has the benefit of providing more streamlined funding. Some of the items that are now in core funding include additional monitoring of amber drugs, alcohol, clinical waste and chronic respiratory funding.

In addition, a new Northern Ireland Assurance Framework is being finalised that will bring all regulatory, legal and statutory requirements into one place.

Equalising the indemnity provision for GPs in Northern Ireland was a ‘red line’

Lead negotiator and NIGPC chair Alan Stout said, “When we entered negotiations we were clear that we had three aims; to simplify the contract, to ensure a fair uplift and to make significant progress on indemnity. Equalising the indemnity provision for GPs in Northern Ireland was a ‘red line’ for the negotiators and we were able to secure £5million for this year to cover indemnity costs.

“This will be shared on a capitation basis among practices and will mean an average uplift of £15.9k per average practice and, to help with cash flow, this will be paid at the start of this financial year. We will continue to work with the Department to bring forward a longer-term indemnity solution that ensures we have parity with the rest of the UK.

“Further progress needs to made to make sure we are able to continue to offer GP services to patients across Northern Ireland. However it is clear this will be dependent on the health budget. We need to continue this work to achieve an increased overall resource to practices which in turn would mean we could finally fully roll out MDTs across Northern Ireland.”