New funding will see the multi-disciplinary team programme expanded across all provinces in Northern Ireland by the end of the decade.
New funding to expand the primary care multi-disciplinary team (MDT) programme in Northern Ireland will help stabilise GP services and advance health service reform.
The £61 million executive transformation funding will secure the expansion of the programme to five new areas: North Belfast, the South-West (Fermanagh/ West Tyrone), East Antrim, Craigavon and Dungannon/Armagh.
The MDT Programme is a partnership between GP Federations and the six health and social care trusts in Northern Ireland. It introduces new physiotherapy, social work and mental health roles into general practice to work alongside the existing practice team. It aims to help shift the health service from treating illness to supporting good physical and mental health and social wellbeing.
“By helping people stay well and manage health conditions, this can reduce reliance on hospital care. Shifting left is also central to my objective of addressing health inequalities,” said health minister Mike Nesbitt.
MDT implementation
The MDT programme currently reaches seven GP Federation areas, with 368 whole time equivalent frontline staff working in MDT teams across 117 GP practices.
During 2023 to 2024, MDTs provided an additional 301,000 consultations in GP settings and more than 10,000 patients benefited from over 260 targeted community initiatives delivered alongside community and voluntary sector colleagues.
Full province-wide rollout of the programme will be taken forward in a two-phase approach over the next seven to eight years.
The first of these phases will be supported by the £61 million of transformation funding over the four-year period to the end of 2028/29. This will enable completion of the model in the seven existing MDT areas, and expansion into the five new GP Federation areas with a population of around 670,000 people.
Work is ongoing with the Trusts and GP Federations to agree delivery plans in each of the five areas.
The second phase is anticipated to run for a further three to four years from 2029/30 and will see the MDT programme completed in the remaining five GP Federation areas. Under this approach, all GP Federation areas in Northern Ireland would see MDT implementation start within the next five years.
