NI patients suing GPs over hospital waiting time targets

Northern Ireland GPs are being hit with bills of thousands of pounds as they are sued by patients coming to harm on hospital waiting lists.

Family doctors are being taken to court by their patients as a result of spiralling hospital waiting lists — even though GPs are not responsible for the crisis.

It comes as official figures show 14% of the population — around one in seven — had been waiting longer than a year for an outpatient or inpatient appointment at the end of March.

The growing risk to patient safety, as the health service struggles to cope with demand, and the potential for primary care doctors to be held accountable have been blamed as reasons for the rising number of GPs who are handing back their contracts.

Sixteen GP surgeries in Northern Ireland have handed back contracts in recent months, bringing the key NHS service closer to collapse.

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Source: Belfast Telegraph, 30 May 2023