Keeping it in the family - Minister praises GPs’ commitment to community

The Health Minister has praised a family-run GP surgery for its commitment to the rural community in South Armagh.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt with Rathkeeland House Surgery partners Drs Kevin and Brid Allen and their parents, Dr Mary Allen and Mr Paddy Allen.

Brother and sister, Drs Kevin and Brid Allen, have been partners in Crossmaglen’s Rathkeeland House Surgery for the past eight years. The GPs come from a family of medics: their mother Mary was a GP in Crossmaglen and their other siblings include a Gastroenterology Consultant, an Emergency Medicine Consultant and a Social Worker

With more than 4,500 patients in Crossmaglen and the surrounding area, Rathkeeland House Surgery received investment of £115,000 from the Department of Health to refurbish the premises for the expansion of the multidisciplinary team (MDT) to include a Social Worker, Social Work Assistant and a Physiotherapist. The MDT also comprises a Pharmacist and Mental Health Practitioner. To facilitate the new team members, the practice had to re-configure the existing surgery premises. This entailed the relocation and upgrading of consultation rooms to hospital grade standards, benefiting clinicians and patients.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt with GPs, practice staff and family members at Rathkeeland House Surgery, Crossmaglen

Visiting the practice, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said: “I was delighted to accept the invitation to visit Rathkeeland House Surgery to meet the partners and their team, and to see the improved facilities and services available for patients. I was deeply impressed by the warmth, energy, knowledge and professionalism on show.

“The Allen family is steeped in the ethos of caring for others and is both well-known and highly regarded here in South Armagh and further afield. I’m inspired by their dedication to serving the community they come from and their commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of their patients, against a backdrop of severe challenges being faced by General Practice across Northern Ireland.

“General Practice is a pivotal part of health and social care in Northern Ireland. The Department will continue to focus on actions that will help address workforce and workload challenges, including the recently agreed 2024/25 General Medical Services (GMS) contract which is also an important step forward to achieving greater stability in General Practice.

“We are building the GP workforce through the Attract, Recruit and Retain Scheme, the GP Retainer Scheme and the GP Induction and Refresher Scheme, and have increased the number of GP training places to the current level of 121. We are also taking steps to increase the range of healthcare professionals working in Primary Care through the roll out of MDTs.”

As well as providing General Medical Services of the people of Crossmaglen, the doctors are both tutors for medical students from Queen’s University Belfast, and Dr Kevin Allen is lead GP for Social Workers in the Southern Federation Support Unit Multi-Disciplinary Team in Newry and District. 

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt with Drs Kevin and Brid Allen, GP Partners at Rathkeeland House Surgery, and (right) Ann Foster, Practice Manager.

Dr Allen said: “Despite the pressures of General Practice, I’m very proud that we found time to contribute to the Heart Failure Plus Programme which involved linking in with Dr Patricia Campbell, Consultant Cardiologist at Daisy Hill Hospital, Newry, to help bridge the gap between Primary and Secondary care. Rathkeeland was the first GP surgery in the UK to do this. In acknowledgement of our work, the team was nominated in the Primary Care Initiative category of the Northern Ireland Healthcare awards 2024.

“All GPs are experiencing intense pressures and those in rural areas are really struggling in terms of recruitment and workload. We welcome this opportunity to engage directly with the Health Minister and to show him that, despite the difficulties of sustaining services here in the most southerly practice in Northern Ireland, we continue to expand services and enhance facilities for our patients who are at the heart of everything we do.”

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