A crisis caused by a lack of funding, pay issues and a National Insurance rise could mean fewer doctors will be available to treat patients in GP practices in the north, it has been warned.

Calls for better funding for practices and pay in line with that in England were called for by Dr Dr, chairman of the British Medical Association NI General Practitioners Committee, on Saturday. Made by Frances O’Hagan.

He spoke at the NI Local Medical Conference in Belfast and said GP practices were at risk of closure unless funding issues were resolved.

Dr O’Hagan said the BMA had achieved the “majority” of what it wanted following discussions with the Department of Health for the GMS (General Medical Services) contract with GPs in the North for 2024/25.

However, he criticized the rejection in the north of the full pay rise recommended for GPs across the UK by the Doctors and Dentists’ Pay Review Board (DDRB).

BMI NI met with health minister Mike Nesbitt on Thursday but was told Stormont was not in a position to make the full pay award.

BMI NI expert Dr. Alan Stout called the situation “completely unacceptable”.

Speaking at the conference on Saturday, Dr O’Hagan said of the pay rise: “This needs to be paid in full. Payments were made to the other three devolved countries and an award above the DDRB was made in Scotland. Anything less here means GPs in Northern Ireland are falling further behind our colleagues in other countries.

He also warned that the UK government’s latest budget, in which Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced an increase in National Insurance (NI) contributions made by employers, would impact services for patients.

The NHS is exempt from the increase, but GP practices are not exempt despite providing NHS services.

“GPs will need to find money to pay increased co-payments, which will cost practices tens of thousands of pounds,” Dr O’Hagan said.

“This will lead to reductions in staff numbers, including salaried GPs, practice nurses and administrative staff, and even an increase in practice returns.

“None of these options are good for GPs and none of these options are good for patient access. These costs must be offset either by reversing the Chancellor’s decision or by additional funding.”

He said spending on GP services from the north’s health budget (5.4%) was “incredibly low considering we do over 90% of consultations in the NHS in Northern Ireland”.

“Our business is actually increasing due to long waiting times, our patients continue to come back to us while they are waiting to be seen in secondary care,” he said.

“We need the Ministry’s determination that this rate will increase so that we can provide better service to our patients.”

Dr O’Hagan warned that the training of new GPs should be a priority, as well as the retention of existing GPs.

The Ministry of Health was contacted for a response.