Author(s): Dr G Jyoti Bansal

Hospital: Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Reference: RAD Magazine online

Excerpt: 

Working in teams is a highly valued aspect of modern society. There is an increasing emphasis on teamwork and collaboration, not just in healthcare, but also in the corporate sector, academic institutions and research organisations. ‘Open plan offices’, ‘small group learning’, ‘brain storming’ and ‘face to face’ interaction are encouraged. The same cooperative approach is practiced in multi-disciplinary team meetings (MDTMs) for discussing patients with cancer. The trend for these meetings started over two decades ago and continues to gain popularity. After the recent Paterson inquiry, there was an impetus to discuss more patients including benign cases in a cancer MDTM and this trend is likely to endure. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges with an enormous impact on healthcare, and will have a long lasting impact on the functioning of MDTMs.