The Department of Health has written to GPs to “remind them of their responsibilities” following a Banbridge surgery’s announcement – alongside several other practices within the Southern Trust area – that they would be ceasing to provide complex wound dressings.
Banbridge Group Surgery made a public announcement of their decision on September 22, stating that continuation of the service – despite a lack of funding from the Department of Health – was “unsustainable”.
According to an article published by the British Medical Association, in July 2025 GPs in Northern Ireland began to take “collective action” in a bid to win more funding for general practice after reaching what had been called a “financial stalemate” with the Department of Health.
From Wednesday, October 1, Banbridge Group Surgery will begin exercising their right to withdraw from voluntary activity requested by secondary care by referring patients requiring complex dressings to the Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT).
In response to the GPs’ plight, Upper Bann MLA Eoin Tennyson wrote to the Minister of Health Mike Nesbitt for an update on the provision of complex wound dressings.
The Minister replied: “I regret that it was not possible to secure agreement with the NI General Practitioners Committee on this year’s contract and their subsequent decision to take collective action.”
Explaining the financial outlay by his Department for 2025/26, the Minister said the General Medical Services (GMS) contract included “an additional £9.5m investment in General Practice”, adding, “In the context of the inadequate budget allocated to my Department by the Executive, and the extremely challenging financial position the Department faces, this represented the best possible offer that could be made”.
In addition to the 2025/26 GMS contract, the Minister says his Department has announced investment of a “further £61m into the Primary Care MDT programme over the next five years, which will expand the range of services available in Primary Care and help address the high levels of demand being dealt with by our GP practices, as well as £2.9m into the GP Elective Service which will increase the levels of service being provided in important primary care services including the Gynae service”.
Taken together, the total investment in General Practice in 2025/26 would be £414m.
The Minister also explained he had accepted pay recommendations for 2025/26 from the relevant bodies and has issued a Ministerial Direction instructing their immediate implementation. The Ministerial Direction has been referred to the Executive for approval.
In regards to collective action taken by GPs, the Minister said: “My priority has been, and continues to be, to ensure that patients can continue to access safe, high quality, sustainable GP services when they need to.
“This continues to apply during collective action. GPs must continue to deliver upon their contractual commitments as they take this action and ensure that impact on patients is minimised.
“Any action that is taken must respect contractual obligations, protect patient safety, and maintain service access. My Department has written to GPs to remind them of their responsibilities on these issues and will closely monitor adherence to ensure that practices continue to deliver to their contractual requirements.”
Relating to complex wound dressings and access to services for patients, the Minster added: “The Trust is accepting the referrals for wound care to be delivered in an alternative clinical setting or potentially in the patient’s own home, processes are currently being put in place to ensure a smooth transition. The Trust will be monitoring the work flow for this service.”
The Minister also explained that the GMS contract for 2025/26 has introduced a “range of measures” which, while “relatively small in scale”, will make a “tangible improvement” to the patient experience in accessing GP services.
Said the Minister: “These measures do not seek to increase the number of consultations delivered nor to make GPs work to unsafe levels.
“Rather, they aim to create small but significant improvement to the patient experience of access, to remove some of the friction points for patients that can make the experience worse for patients and practices alike. In many cases, these are things that practices here are already doing and the aim has been to seek to spread that good practice across the region.
“Looking to the future of General Practice, I am committed to working with GPs on the future of primary care services and that we continue to engage constructively with General Practice.
“My Department has invited Northern Ireland General Practice Committee (NIGPC) to engage in formal negotiations to develop a new GMS contract for 2026/27, with the aim of helping stabilise practices and enabling practices to play a leading role in the new neighbourhood model of care outlined in my Department’s recently published Health and Social Care Reset Plan.”
