AQW 54528/11-16 Written question to the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety
To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to detail the annual rate of retirement for local GPs; and for his assessment of whether the increase in GP training places is sufficient to mitigate this rate.
Asked by Claire Sugden MLA on 19 February 2016
- Answered
- Written
- After due date
- Tabled
- 19 February 2016
- Answer due by
- 7 March 2016
- Answered
- 23 March 201633 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Health
- Priority question
- No
Answer
The annual rate of retirement for local GPs is not available. In 2014 24.8% of GPs in Northern Ireland were aged over 55.
The additional 20 annual GP training places is only one of a range of initiatives which I have recently announced and which I consider will ease the work pressures on GPs and thereby encourage individuals to continue to work in Primary Care. These include a five-year investment initiative that will put close to 300 pharmacists in GP practices by 2021; and funding of £300,000 during 2015/16 to help retain the existing GP workforce and to encourage GPs who have left practice to return. I have also established a Departmental working group to consider the delivery of GP-led Primary Care services.