Multidisciplinary Team Working

This new toolkit has been launched to support independent healthcare providers to further improve multi-disciplinary team (MDT) working in the sector, setting out the latest best practice and innovations from across the healthcare system. 

MDT working – where healthcare professionals work together alongside patients to make team-based clinical decisions – is established practice in many areas of healthcare including in the independent sector, and for patients with complex care needs such as cancer, MDTs are viewed as the gold standard for care. The importance of MDT working was also highlighted in the Bishop of Norwich’s independent inquiry into Ian Paterson.  

With support from NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, Royal Colleges, insurers, patient charities and independent providers themselves, IHPN have developed a new toolkit for independent providers to help develop, strengthen and improve their approaches to MDTs, including the increasing use of virtual or hybrid meetings post-covid.  

The toolkit can be used by independent providers of all types, sizes and structures, and looks to support the use of MDTs beyond cancer care to a broader range of medical settings. The resource provides key principles to support providers around: 

• identifying when MDT meetings should be carried out in the best interests of patients; 
• what clinicians and providers should consider when setting up and running MDT meetings;  

Best practice examples from across the independent sector and wider health service are also set out to stimulate and to support independent providers to further strengthen the governance around their MDTs and develop innovative new approaches. These include exemplars around: 

• MDT working for highly specialised and complex care;  
• Running effective virtual and/or hybrid MDT meetings 
• Engaging patients in the MDT process