Practice staff are “devastated” that a promised three year funding settlement for the NHS in Northern Ireland cannot be delivered, a senior GP has warned.

Ministers had proposed to increase spending in the region by 10% over three years, adding £21 billion to NHS budgets, helping to tackle record waiting times. However, the region’s power-sharing executive has collapsed following the resignation of first minister Paul Givan over Brexit and the Northern Ireland protocol.

Yesterday finance minister Conor Murphy told the regional assembly he was no longer allowed to present a budget to it for approval. Under Northern Ireland law, the budget had to be approved by the executive before being presented to the Assembly.

He said: “Unfortunately, the legal advice is clear that the budget must be agreed by the Executive.
This means that on April 1 the health service will not be able to plan on a three-year basis, nor will it be equipped with additional resources to invest in waiting lists, cancer services and mental health. In these circumstances, rather than improving, the health service will decline. Last week the Health Minister apologised to people on waiting lists because without a multi-year budget, the opportunity to rebuild the health service would be ‘cruelly taken away’. That analysis is sadly correct.”

Dr Laurence Dorman, chair of the Royal College of GPs in the region, called on the politicians to work together to deliver the NHS Funding. He called for political stability and stability for the NHS.

He said: “Years of single year budgets have meant our health service has been reactive and unable to meet the needs of patients. For years we have known that multiyear budgets are needed in Northern Ireland to enable us to plan and deliver health services more effectively. The fact that this is no longer possible solely due to political failure is deeply disappointing and frustrating. After ten years of single year budgets, this multi-year settlement was a vital opportunity and if lost, will have severe consequences. In the context of huge pressures in general practice and across our health service, healthcare staff, who have worked beyond capacity for many years, will be devastated to learn of this failure today and feel deeply demoralised.”