About GP Federations in Northern Ireland

A GP Federation is a collective group of GP Practices across a set geographical area with a common desire to work together at scale, sharing responsibility for the development and delivery of high-quality patient-focused services, closer to home for their local population. 

GP Federations provide the opportunity for a single voice of strength from primary care in given geographical areas across Health and Social Care, to actively contribute to the evolvement of the transformation agenda.  

In Northern Ireland, the creation of the Federation model has been both led and funded by GPs themselves. There are currently 17 fully incorporated GP Federations covering all areas of Northern Ireland, and all of which are owned entirely by GPs.  Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that has a unified model of Federations governed by a unified Members Agreement covering its entire population.

GP Federations aim to provide better care, delivered in a more responsive way for patients registered on the lists of practices within the Federation. 

The focus is on working across the local health and social care community, in collaboration with a wide number of agencies, to design and implement innovative healthcare strategies and ways of delivering high-quality care. This can include developing services specifically to suit local needs which are more easily commissioned ‘at scale’ – i.e. across a number of towns/districts 

The Northern Ireland GP Federation Model includes an average size of circa 100,000 patients with 20 practices. Federation boundaries are in line with the current boundaries for Integrated Care Partnerships (ICPs). Each Federation has been established as a Community Interest Company and is limited by Guarantee in the not-for-profit sector. There are 4 Federation Support Units (FSUs) which provide administrative assistance to the Federations. You can find out more by clicking on the relevant link below

Eastern FSU

Northern FSU

Southern FSU

Western FSU

The Federations have an online recruitment portal that allows you to view all current vacancies across GP Federations and Federation Support Units regionally and apply directly online. Click on the link below to find out more

GP Federations Recruitment Portal


If you are working in a particular region, then you can find out more about what your local Federation is doing by emailing them. You can find the contact email by clicking on the relevant area below