Ministers hail funding to extend health early intervention initiative

The Northern Ireland Secretary and Stormont ministers have hailed funding to extend an initiative to promote early intervention in the health service.

Hilary Benn, along with deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, Health Minister Mike Nesbitt and Finance Minister John O’Dowd visited Eden Park Medical Practice in north Belfast where they met with GPs and healthcare staff.

It comes following the announcement of £61 million for multi-disciplinary teams (MDTs), a partnership between GP federations and health trusts to introduce new early intervention roles into general practice.

Mr O’Dowd announced the funding earlier this week, as one of six projects to benefit from £129 million to transform public services.

As part of the financial package which led to the restoration of the devolved powersharing institutions last year, £235 million was committed by the UK Government for transformation funding over a five-year period.

Mr Benn said he had been impressed with what he had heard, describing the MDT model as something that works.

“The £61 million is going to enable many more GP practices to be able to adopt it and bring real benefits for patients, and also in time will take pressure off secondary care,” he said.

“This shows what can be done when we work together.”

Ms Little-Pengelly said it had been “fantastic” to visit and see what the initiative will mean on the ground, praising the agreement for the first tranche of the £235 million delivered.

“These projects will make a really significant impact right across a number of key areas,” she said.

Mr Nesbitt described a “great day”.

“There is a lot happening in terms of health reform, rapid diagnostic centres, day procedure centres, elective overnight stay centres, but the multi disciplinary team is the outstanding example,” he said.

“We know it works from the seven federations where it already exists and it’s great to get that up to 12 of the 17, and we’ll continue to work until everybody has access to a multi disciplinary team.”

Mr O’Dowd added: “Listening to the GPs, the people on the frontline, and the enthusiasm they have for the multi disciplinary teams, to me is the icing on the cake.

“They know the difference this money is going to make to the communities they serve, and we as elected representatives in our different roles, will continue to work together to ensure that more funding similar to this is rolled out and that we continue to make the change that is required across our society.”