GP partners in Northern Ireland have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking collective action as part of their fight for increased funding for general practice.

98.7% of those who took part in the referendum voted yes to collective action that will see GP practices across the country take the unprecedented step of withdrawing some non-funded services*. These services do not form part of the current, imposed GMS contract for 2025/2026 but take up a significant amount of time away from patient care.

Dr Frances O’Hagan, chair of BMA’s Northern Ireland general practitioners committee (NIGPC), said the result sent a “clear and unequivocal message” to the Health minister.

“This is the first time the GMS contract has been imposed on the GP workforce in Northern Ireland. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that GP partners have voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking the unprecedented step of collective action to force improvements to the 2025/2026 contract offer and save general practice from all-out collapse,” said Dr O’Hagan.

“We have been warning for well over a decade now that general practice was not being funded to meet the needs of growing patient lists and that failure to act on this would have consequences on patient care. 

“Frustratingly, these warnings have fallen on deaf ears. Instead, the current Health minister, who wants to shift healthcare services ‘left’ into the community where general practice sits at the core, hopes to achieve this by imposing an under-funded contract and publicly dismissing GPs’ valid concerns on how this will impact patients in these very same communities. It is demoralising and has left GPs with no choice but to vote in favour of collective action. 

“The referendum period saw a massive increase BMA membership among GPs in Northern Ireland, such was the strength of feeling against the contract imposition.”

Dr O’Hagan reiterated that the imposed contract would serve to work against improving patient access.

“We asked the Department for an additional £39 per-patient, per-year. Instead in this imposed contract for 2025/2026* they have only given us an additional 50p per-patient, per-year. That’s less than a penny per-patient, per-week to improve access. This is how much they value the service GPs provide and how much they value the care of our patients. It’s simply not enough. 

“It will not stem the tide of contract hand-backs and the domino closure effect on nearby practices in communities throughout Northern Ireland. At the heart of all this, it works against improving access for our patients. The ‘access’ proposals issued by the Department along with the imposed contract for 2025/2026 and without consultation with us will not create more appointments but will increase time-consuming non patient-facing bureaucracy.”  

Dr O’Hagan called on the Health minister to act urgently and resume contract negotiations.

“Not one GP who voted in favour of collective action wants to have to go down this road, but they feel they have been left with no choice,” said Dr O’Hagan.

“The Minister needs to demonstrate that he values general practice and that he has our backs by coming back to the negotiating table with an improved 2025/2026 contract offer.”

Notes to editors

The referendum on collective action was open to GP partners across Northern Ireland who were BMA members. The online referendum took place from 23 June to 03 July. There was a 79.4% turnout for the ballot.

*Full details on what collective action entails, the imposed contract and what NIGPC’s asks are can be found here.