Patient experience of Primary Care Multidisciplinary Team (MDTs) in Northern Ireland

Primary Care Multi-disciplinary Teams (MDT) in Northern Ireland builds on the commitments in ‘Delivering Together 2026’ and ‘New Decade New Approach’ and has been established to transform the planning and delivery of Primary care services by: Better meeting existing demand for primary care services; Providing a platform for service reform – supporting the shift of care into primary and community settings; and Boosting capability and capacity for early intervention, prevention and focus on wellbeing. The MDT Programme, which began in 2018 has introduced new physiotherapy, social work and mental health roles into general practice, to work alongside enhanced levels of nursing and the existing practice team. At present circa 730,000 (36%) of our population have direct access to one or more core MDT services which includes a total 243 MDT Senior Practitioners across 114 GP Practices in 7 out of our 17 Federation areas. Service user feedback is an important part of the ongoing evaluation and quality improvement of Primary Care MDTs. Since the introduction of MDTs, feedback and lived experiences has been captured mainly at local level and is generally very positive as seen in the examples below: “He was able to say to me 'that I can do, that I will follow up' and he did. I felt it was the first time I was listened to” “I felt like I was listened to and I felt understood. I was shown compassion and given support. Thank you for your help” “Brilliant service received. More appropriate than GP visit re this complaint” “As my mental health condition is relatively new it was so reassuring to know that I didn't always have to wait to deal with a GP. I was given same day appointments over the phone, recommendations for website and information on self-referral for counselling” However, at present there is variation across federation areas and professions as to what patient feedback is being gathered and the methodology being used therefore a 10, 000 More Voices project has been developed to support a regional approach. 10,000 More Voices provides a person-centred approach to improving and influencing experience of health and social care services. It is underpinned by the principles of Experience Led Co-Design, of which partnership working between those who use and deliver healthcare services is a key element. The project will collect the experiences of service users over a six week period starting in January 2024 and we wish to use this opportunity to share our initial findings. Following the principles of the 10,000 more voices, the outcomes of the project will be shared with MDT service leads, practitioners and other key stake holders and used improve our services through staff education and training.