Northern Ireland’s health minister has approved a new £32m health centre to tackle long-running GP issues in Fermanagh county.
In his announcement, health minister Mike Nesbitt recognised the ‘particular strain’ GP services have been under in the East Fermanagh area, and criticised the recent abuse faced by staff at a local practice in Lisnaskea.
The Department of Health hopes to attract 16 GPs to work in the new health centre, which will serve 30,000 patients and is due to open in 2026.
However, the BMA in Northern Ireland told Pulse that this new hub ‘will not solve the issues’ around GP shortages, and that ‘much more’ needs to be done to attract staff.
Pulse reported extensively on Fermanagh’s general practice crisis in 2016, when GPs were forced to reshuffle after the small practice model many were running under was deemed unsustainable due to a surge of retiring doctors and inability to recruit young GPs.
Northern Ireland has seen a number of contract hand-backs since then, with the Western Trust forced to take over two Fermanagh GP practices last year.
The health minister has now greenlit a new health and care centre in Lisnaskea, which will provide GP care as well as wider services such as podiatry, physiotherapy and mental health.
Construction will begin ‘within weeks’ with an estimated capital cost of around £32m.
At the end of August, GP leaders spoke out against abuse faced by the current Lisnaskea Health Centre, after posters criticising GP access appeared outside the surgery overnight.
Local campaigners said the posters were put up to ‘highlight the complete lack of even basic healthcare in Lisnaskea’.
In a statement confirming his approval for the new health centre, Minister Nesbitt said he was ‘incredibly disappointed to learn of the completely unacceptable behaviour’ experienced by the Lisnaskea practice team.
He also said: ‘I appreciate that primary care services are under particular strain in the Lisnaskea and East Fermanagh area and recognise that people have been waiting for some time on [approval of the new hub]. However, it was imperative that the necessary checks and balances were completed before proceeding.
‘This significant investment will provide a central hub in Lisnaskea, enabling patients and service users to benefit from improved accessibility and increased multi-disciplinary provision in areas such as; Podiatry, Speech & Language Therapy, Physiotherapy, Mental Health Services and Older People services.’
The Western Trust, which will now move to award the construction contract, said this is a ‘milestone’ which has been achieved by collaboration between GPs, the trust and the Northern Ireland Department of Health.
Director of finance, contracts and capital development Eimear McCauley said: ‘We welcome this project moving to construction as another step in providing an appropriate setting for the delivery of services in South East Fermanagh, both from opening of the new facility and for many years ahead.’
But NI GP Committee deputy chair Dr Ciaran Mullan said GPs need to see ‘a combination of local and strategic change’ instead.
He told Pulse: ‘While any investment in general practice, particularly in rural areas, is welcome, a new health centre will not solve the issues.
‘A health centre with no staff is simply a building and we need much more than new premises to attract GPs to work in rural areas.’
Dr Mullan repeated the GPC’s regular call for a ‘proper indemnity solution’ for all GPs in the country, as well as ‘increased funding per patient’.
‘However we also need to see better roll out of the multi-disciplinary team model into all areas of Northern Ireland as part of the package of attracting GPs to rural areas has to be making sure they are able to focus on general practice, seeing patients, and having the wider support available to assist them in this,’ he added.
Earlier this month, new figures revealed that GPs in Northern Ireland have experienced a real-terms funding cut of nearly 2.5% in the past year.
The Field Of Dreams philosophy – “If you build it they will come”