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Multidisciplinary team working, clinical networks, and chambers; opportunities to work differently in the NHS

¹ Hammersmith Hospitals Trust and Imperial College School of Medicine, London, UK
² Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
³ Durrow, PO Box 22, Machlynlleth, Wales SY20 8WQ

Correspondence to:
P Garside
Newhealth, 26 Milson Road, London W14 0LJ, UK

Recently in the United Kingdom some new organisational structures for clinicians have been discussed. So far little has changed, but the intensity of interest suggests this may be an opportunity to link change in working practices with improvements in quality. Multidisciplinary team working is developing within the National Health Service (NHS) and some groups are expanding their roles across traditional institutional boundaries to form complex clinical networks. It would require little to make these functional networks autonomous from current NHS structures. Other models of working without traditional institutional boundaries have been discussed, including the formation of "chambers" for doctors and other professionals. We describe the first tentative steps of one group as an example and suggest that further experimentation with evaluation is required.

Keywords: clinical networks; doctors in chambers; managed care; multidisciplinary teams