BMJ 2003;326:655 ( 22 March )

Education and debate

Clinical networks for doctors and managers

Hilary Thomas, Macmillan lead clinician for the Surrey, West Sussex, and Hampshire Network. 

St Luke's Cancer Centre, Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford GU2 5XX

hilary.thomas@surrey.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Improved patient outcomes stem from decision making within multidisciplinary teams. Working effectively in teams is about building relationships and developing trust. Managed clinical networks are based on such teamwork, enabling doctors and managers to work together constructively. These networks link groups of health professionals and organisations from primary, secondary, and tertiary care, enabling them to work together in a coordinated way, unconstrained by professional and organisational boundaries to ensure equitable provision of high quality, effective services to patients.

As my own network (in oncology) has developed, the leaders (including clinicians and managers) have emerged and enabled teams to improve delivery and quality of care across the network as well as in their individual organisations. Improvements have included closer working between primary and palliative care in the training of stafffor example, district nurses being trained in palliative care skillsand in developing a palliative care strategy. We all have a . . . [Full text of this article]

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