Part of Adjournment – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 4:00 pm on 10 September 2024.
Jemma Dolan
Sinn Féin
4:00,
10 September 2024
I thank my party colleague Áine Murphy for securing this afternoon's Adjournment Debate.
Primary care in a wider sense is generally the first point of contact with the health service for those who become unwell, providing 95% of the care that people need throughout their lifetime. Let me therefore, first off, acknowledge the enormous contribution made by those working in primary care.
While primary care also includes our nurses, health visitors, physiotherapists, social workers, mental health practitioners and community pharmacists, our GPs have shouldered the burden of escalating demand, a declining workforce and real-terms funding cuts like never before.
As Deborah Erskine said, the recent NI Audit Office report on access to general practice found that almost one in three local practices sought crisis support in the past four years. The absence of a specific workforce strategy for general practice has resulted in the failure to train, recruit, retain and reward staff, which has consequently led to a deterioration of service provision and limited progress on the roll-out of MDTs in local primary care settings. That is the foundation of the health service. Significant levels of funding and transformation are therefore required. With more than one in 10 GPs in the North leaving the profession last year, the need for support to preserve and protect the existing general practice workforce must be addressed as a matter of urgency.
The sense of urgency feels even more pressing in Fermanagh, where we have all heard and experienced stories of failure to get GP appointments. While people experience difficulties during the day, it was brought to my attention that the whole of Fermanagh was left without out-of-hours GP cover for at least 36 hours one weekend in July, with some constituents being left with no alternative but to pay for a private GP appointment. I know that the Health Minister cannot fix our GP crisis overnight, but I wrote to him highlighting that cause for huge concern and asking that it not happen again. People cannot afford to pay for it. Inevitably, our health will deteriorate if the two-tier health service continues.
An adjournment debate is a short half hour debate that is introduced by a backbencher at the end of each day's business in the House of Commons.
Adjournment debates are also held in the side chamber of Westminster Hall.
This technical procedure of debating a motion that the House should adjourn gives backbench members the opportunity to discuss issues of concern to them, and to have a minister respond to the points they raise.
The speaker holds a weekly ballot in order to decide which backbench members will get to choose the subject for each daily debate.
Backbenchers normally use this as an opportunity to debate issues related to their constituency.
An all-day adjournment debate is normally held on the final day before each parliamentary recess begins. On these occasions MPs do not have to give advance notice of the subjects which they intend to raise.
The leader of the House replies at the end of the debate to all of the issues raised.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
