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'People are paying with their lives or livelihoods'

BBC Dr Ursula Mason on the set of BBC Northern Ireland's Sunday Politics programmeBBC
Dr Ursula Mason said the health minister's assessment of 'catastrophic cuts' was not unduly harsh

The chair of the Royal College of GPs in Northern Ireland says increasing pressure on the health service means patients are either paying with "their livelihoods or they're paying with their lives".

Dr Ursula Mason told BBC News NI's Sunday Politics programme that doctors cannot "keep doing more and more with less and less".

On Tuesday, the Northern Ireland Assembly passed its first budget in three years, despite several parties voting against the move.

The new Health Minister Mike Nesbitt reiterated his predecessor Robin Swann's comments that, without additional funding, his department will need to make ‘catastrophic’ cuts.

"That language isn't coming from Robin Swann," he said, "that language came from the trusts, from the people running the health service, and that is a realistic assessment."

"Currently, what we’re actually calling for is investment, but what it looks like is coming down the line are budget cuts," said Dr Mason.

"From a GP perspective, we are seeing daily the impact of having to do that on our patients—those spiralling waiting lists, care not being given in a timely fashion, and the moral injury that it has on GPs is huge."