Multi-Disciplinary Team Streamlining

MDTs are often referred as the ‘gold standard’ of cancer services. Made up of a variety of healthcare professionals involved in treating and caring for patients, they meet each week to discuss individual patient cases and to make treatment recommendations.

Due to the increased volume and complexity of cancer cases that comes with an ageing population and increase in treatment options, MDT working needs to adapt to enable time to focus on those that are more complex.

The 2017 Survey by CRUK recognised a number of problems:

• Unnecessary repeated discussions
• Many MDT discussions were very short with obvious outcomes
• Current MDT attendance is not optimal, and many cases delayed because the right speciality was not present
• The right information is often not used to inform discussions

To reflect the changing nature of cancer care, the increased demand for services, and the publication of the Multi Disciplinary Team Streamlining Guidance, the Peninsula Cancer Alliance is working with MDTs to refresh the format of MDT meetings across the region using the proposed solutions:

• More standardised pathways with clear investigation bundles with a place for MDT discussion identified.
• Move to quoracy recording
• SOC pathways for those patients which do not require full review and discussion
• Triage MDT list prior to meetings to remove patients that do not require discussion and to validate SOC pathways.

The principles of MDT streamlining are not an one size-fits-all approach and should be considered in relation to patient need, local circumstance, and by tumour site.

For updates on our MDT streamlining please visit our Site Specific Group pages found here.