A GP-led service in Northern Ireland that takes pressure off "astronomical waiting lists" in areas like menopause and vasectomy treatments is set to lose half of its funding, a senior medic has warned.
Established in 2018, the General Practice Elective Care Service allowed for GPs to receive enhanced training to carry out more clinical work in a primary care setting.
Funded by the Health and Social Care Board, it has treated well over 50,000 patients that would otherwise have been on lengthy waiting lists for areas including dermatology, musculoskeletal (MSK), gynaecology and vasectomies.
Dr Alan Stout chairs the Northern Ireland General Practitioners Committee, and said it was deeply frustrating that a successful method of reducing Northern Ireland's "astronomical" waiting lists will now lose half of its capacity.
“We’re told it’s 50 per cent that the funding is being reduced, so that’s 50 per cent of the activity and patient numbers going through there,” he told the Irish News.
“There’s a number of services that will be affected like dermatology that covers things like abnormal skin rashes, muscular skeletal services which covers joint pains, gynae which covers menopause but also contraceptive services.”
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Despite the benefits, he said the Department of Health had viewed the service as an easy target when forced to make major savings.
“It’s one of those rare services that we are seeing people quite quickly in. Now things will either get worse over a longer time frame, or people will just be referred on to the waiting lists which will just get bigger and bigger,” he said.
Many of the GPES doctors and staff have been with us from the launch of Elective Care Services in November 2018. We are now celebrating over 51,000 patients who have been seen through the service in General Practice. @healthdpt @rcgp_ni @mcentee_siobhan @gp_northern @southern_fsu pic.twitter.com/eFlcKiDgZL
— GPECS (@ni_gpecs) May 11, 2023
One example of how the elective service works well is for quickly assessing “lumps and bumps".
“The lump would be removed and we’d get the pathology back very quickly and we would know exactly what we’re dealing with,” Dr Stout said.
“If we have to wait a longer period of time, that obviously introduces risk.
“Guiney services are another example, because clearly menopause services have been in the news for good reason recently.
“It’s about providing that expertise and medical service in a primary care environment. But also, things like contraceptive services are also so important to the wider population.”
Dr Stout said that it now seems inevitable that more patients will now face their health deteriorating on long waiting lists or spending money on private healthcare.
“The length of time waiting for things like a vasectomy on a normal NHS waiting list would be too long,” he said.
“This is now a part of the elective care service that has been stood down completely, and it’s hard to see without going privately how that would be accessed any other way."
A Department of Health spokesperson said the department remained "committed to the delivery of elective care services in primary care in line with the strategic direction of the Elective Care Framework.
"Despite the ongoing financial pressures across all departments, a total of £2.1m has been secured to support continuation of the Primary Elective Care service model across five pathways (dermatology, gynaecology, minor surgery, musculoskeletal and non-scalpel vasectomy) until March 31, 2024.
"The department continues to work with GPs to enable continuation of all pathways within the available funding."
