GPs in Northern Ireland offered £2,000 cash bonus

GPs in Belfast and South and South Eastern regions with serious staffing problems are to be offered £2,000 cash bonuses to work out of hours.

£300,000 has been allocated by Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Board to fund the new service. GPs who have never worked out of hours or have not done so for more than a year are eligible, which the board hopes will ‘increase the medical manpower of the out-of-hours services in those areas’.

The cash bonus relies on GPs committing to out-of-hours work for three to six months and completing the requirements of the Local Enhanced Services, under which the bonus comes.

A shortage of GPS as well as rising indemnity costs have been held responsible for the staffing problems seen in out-of-hours services throughout the UK.

A Health and Social Care Board spokesperson said: “The out-of-hours service is facing challenges due to increasing demand and difficulties associated with recruitment and retention of GPs. Over the past few years, fewer doctors have made themselves available to work out of hours, particularly at busier periods.”

Dr Alan Stout, BMA GP Committee deputy chair for Northern Ireland, said: “We have a crisis in GP manpower both in and out of hours. We ultimately need to increase the out-of-hours rates - which have been unchanged for 11 years - to attract people to work in the service but also to cover ever increasing costs and in particular indemnity costs.

“Without a [health] minister and without a budget and an agreed rescue plan there cannot be a rate enhancement and so projects like this are required to try to attract new doctors into the system and to cover their costs, never mind pay them appropriately. It will be interesting to see what the result of this will be in terms of numbers, but long term more definitive change is needed including reviewing the overall model and reviewing the rates.”