Table 2.

Summary of survey and interview findings

Theme	Survey statements and interview questions	Survey response by practice a (%)	Survey response by individual (%)	Interview quotations
Time	We have not got time for huddles	Strongly agree/agree  14 (44.7%)	Strongly agree/agree  21 (44.6%)	‘I think the hardest thing would be finding the time to do it. That would be the biggest constraint’. ‘The main concern will be have I the time? We have many extra patients, the admin time gets done after you are supposed to finish’. ‘You’re not going to prioritise safety huddles…if you’ve got like 4 patients waiting’.
Meeting frequency	Do you have breaks between surgeries where staff might meet for coffee for a few minutes?	Yes, 22 (64.7%)	Yes, 27 (57.5%)	‘Some of us have a kind of break at 10 o’clock in theory. But… we’re not getting it. Or run out at different times in that half hour to grab our tea’ ‘We’ll have 2 appointments in the morning blocked out. But they’re at different times so I don’t get to see my colleagues’. ‘I met very briefly with another GP this morning and I felt guilty because there was another doctor slogging away whilst we were having coffee’. ‘[Breaks are] becoming less and less achievable’.
	Do you have regular meetings?	Yes, 17 (50%) b	Yes, 24 (51.1%) b	‘We do have regular meetings perhaps every 2 to 3 weeks’. ‘There has been a limitation on the some of the meetings… we manage one every 3 or 4 weeks’. ‘We have a full practice meeting twice a year’.
Inclusivity	It is not possible to get people together so we can huddle	Strong agree/agree  14 (44.7%)	Strongly agree/agree  18 (38.3%)	‘There isn’t a natural time when you would happen to all be together’. ‘Its nice theory to have a meeting but we need to use the workload of general practice’.
	Who attends the meetings?	–	–	‘The part-time staff they can usually come to one a fortnight’. ‘I don’t attend the weekly meeting…it suits everybody else to have them first thing on a morning and it doesn’t suit me’. ‘It doesn’t include non-clinical staff…there’s no meetings that include everybody’. ‘Not everybody gets to go. It depends on whether they work that day’.
Current culture	Staff at our practice are keen about holding huddles	Strongly agree/agree  9 (26.5%)	Strongly agree/agree  11 (23.9%)	‘Ideas like safety huddles…people like GPs are sick of mandatory changes’. ‘Just because it’s a good idea in secondary care does not make it a good idea in primary care’. ‘I can think of one doctor who wouldn’t come… some would, you know, need a bit of em… persuasion’. ‘Like the culture of very much that we’re busy and you’ve got to get your head down and crack on’.
	Huddles will reduce harm to patients	Strongly agree/agree  22 (64.7%)	Strongly agree/agree  31 (65.9%)	‘You can run certain patients past each other’. ‘It’s a convenient time to get opinions from other people’. ‘I think they’re essential’ ‘I think [safety huddles] sound like a really good idea, you know, getting together…safety netting and team working’.
Team relationships	(Theme emerged from analysis of interviews)	–	–	‘If you spend time together you can empathise more…Getting to know each other better. Getting to trust each other more’. ‘[It] is an opportunity to build a relationship [with non-clinical staff] and keep morale up’. ‘Another day and you haven’t seen half your colleagues! I don’t necessarily know each other’. ‘If there’s been a lot of staffing changes and upheaval you need to sort of…consolidate and em engender a bit of team spirit’.

^aCounted as ‘yes’ for whole practice when over half of individuals from that practice responded yes.

^bIncludes daily, weekly and monthly meetings.