The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) and other medical societies have published a briefing paper, urging the U.K. Government to use the upcoming National Cancer Plan for England to begin reform of how cancer multidisciplinary teams work.
The societies jointly say this is "a critical opportunity" to reform cancer decision-making, after past NHS England efforts to trial streamlining team meetings suggested this would create fairer access to the NHS’s cancer treatment options, give clinicians more time with patients, and save costs.
They added that overloaded multidisciplinary team meetings lead to rushed discussions of variable quality, a heavy time burden for clinicians, and delays to patient care.
The societies said that multidisciplinary team meetings should be:
- Only used to discuss the most complex cases that will benefit from an in-depth review
- Repurposed for activities like quality improvement and training, using relevant data to review and improve processes
- Attended only by those who are required and who can actively contribute
- Not used as the sole decision-making forum for cancer treatment
- Focused on patient-centered care
- Used to collect and analyze high-quality, consistent data to inform service development
The following societies joined the RCR in developing the briefing: Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Pathologists, and the Association of Cancer Physicians.
The full briefing can be found here.
