PA MediaThe health minister has imposed a disputed financial package on Northern Ireland GPs after they rejected the deal last week.
An overwhelming number of those who took part in the British Medical Association (BMA) referendum on the Department of Health (DoH) proposal for core funding for services voted against it.
Speaking in the Assembly on Monday, Mike Nesbitt said negotiations had reached “an endpoint” and there would no further offer to doctors.
He said the money he was offering had been hard to source and the time for “general open-ended discussions is over”.
The minister added he would not sign off on “catastrophic cuts” to fill funding gaps in the healthcare system.
The union said its demands included urgent money to address the rise in costs as a result of increased national insurance contributions and a 1% uplift in core funding.
Nesbitt said a package of £9.5m additional funding was offered to GPs and said he was “disappointed” the BMA negotiators recommended to their members that they reject the offer.
A total of 99.6% of GPs who took part in the referendum voted to reject the offer.
Mr Nesbitt told assembly members budgetary pressures were at an all-time high.
Union calls for ‘credible offer’
Last week, BMA NI GP committee chair, Dr Frances O’Hagan, said GPs in Northern Ireland “do not think this offer is enough to stabilise or save general practice in Northern Ireland”.
The BMA decided to ballot its members after it said negotiations on the 2025-26 GP contract with the department stalled.
It has warned that there may be more GP contracts handed back and some practices unable to remain financially viable.
The BMA has called on the DoH to return to the negotiating table with a “credible offer”.
As part of the referendum, GPs were asked if they were willing to take further, collective action if a better offer was not presented, with 89% of respondents indicating they would be willing to do so.
A total of 1,381 people voted in the referendum, about 65% of eligible voters.
Mr Nesbitt said that when he took up post the last thing he was looking for was “a fight” and he had huge respect for healthcare staff, including GPs.
