Permanent doctors to be recruited for under-pressure GP practices

FOUR new permanent doctors are to be recruited for rural GP practices in Fermanagh and Tyrone that are currently experiencing severe pressures.

As reported by the ‘Herald last week, the Western Trust recently warned of a high risk of having no GP cover at the local practices it had taken over the running of in the past number of years.

At the latest meeting of the Fermanagh and Omagh District Council (FODC) Health and Social Care sub-committee, however, it was announced by the Strategic Planning and Performance Group (SPPG) that plans are in place to advertise for at least three to four GPs to work in Dromore and Trillick, Fintona, Tempo and Brookeborough.

Pat Brolly, Head of Business Operations West and South for SPPG, told the committee, “We wanted to move to a longer-term solution, and so the Western Health Trust have worked up a salary contract and hopefully they will be in a position shortly to advertise for a salary GP to work in Dromore, Fintona, Trillick, Tempo, Brookborough and provide longer-term security.”

He added, “The pot we have for individual practices will be used for the roll-outs (of new GPs).”

Dr Maura O’Neill, from the Western Health Trust, said “This is an exciting development that will bring stability to the residents within the local practices. It is an attractive position that hopes to bring stability for new GPs.

“We have got to the stage now where we are about to roll-out advertisements for salary GPs, which is a really exciting development in the Western Health Trust.

“This means we are working towards stability and resilience in these local practices.

“We will be seeing these advertisements in the next few weeks for an attractive position in terms of bringing stability for new GPs.

“We do believe that this will assure people we are working towards a more resilient recruitment moving ahead.”

Congratulating the Trust on its ‘positive work’, Cllr Stephen McCann said, “Yes, there have been challenges in the day-to-day running of the practices to bring some form of stability for patient experiences. There still are challenges, but the additional salary GPs are very much welcome and it’s good to hear that they are incentivised.

“This development will go a long way to address these long-to-medium term issues.”

The Trust took over the practices at Brookeborough and Tempo, and Trillick and Dromore in recent years after the GPs who had previously been running the surgeries handed back their contracts and no other provider could be found to take on the contracts.