Enhancing MDT working in your practice/PCN
Why is change needed?
We heard very strongly from participants that they are passionate about multidisciplinary team (MDT) working. They felt that this a team with a diverse skill mix will improve the service that we offer to our patients. This MDT includes all roles, such as clinical pharmacists, first contact physiotherapists, physician associates, and social prescribers.
More detail on this can be found in the General Practice in the Wider Healthcare Landscape section of the Final Report.
Participants felt that many practices could enhance how they work as an MDT. One of the biggest barriers was felt to be that we do not understand each other’s roles well. This includes:
How can I change this?
This is something that can be readily improved at practice/PCN level, and can have a direct positive impact upon patient care.
Many practices/PCNs host weekly or monthly meetings that bring together all members of staff working in this organisation. This is a prime opportunity to organise bitesize interprofessional education (IPE) – learning from, with and about each other.
Having a dedicated slot whereby a representative from each role presents to the full practice team can be a really powerful way to improve mutual understanding. In practice, you may allocate a 15-minute slot, once per month, to each role you have in your practice.
You may wish to set up a rota, and give clear instructions to each role about what they should include in their presentation. Below, you can download a template set of slides that could be used for the presentation.
How do I get started?
Firstly, you will want to identify who in your practice needs to agree to this in order for it to go ahead. This will likely include people such as the practice manager, and the GP partners, though it may extend beyond these people too. Quite often, stakeholder mapping exercises can be helpful here.
You will then want to pitch your idea to them. This is often best done in person. That said, you may prefer to do so via email. Below, you can download a template email which you can edit and send to your stakeholders.
What are my next steps?
These are all steps that The Big GP Consultation Team would be very happy to support you with. Please do email us with a summary of your plans, and how we may be able to help, and we’ll be back in touch with you as soon as possible.
Identify…
…who would need to agree to this in order for it to go ahead.
Pitch…
…this idea to your key stakeholders.
Find…
…your allies who can champion your idea – who will be in favour of this, and how will you get them on board?
Discover…
…the types of roles that you have in your practice, and therefore how many presentation slots are required.
How could I take this further?
Above, we outline a simple way in which some limited IPE can be implemented in practice.
There are also many other ways to deliver IPE, which extend beyond the above. This can go as far as bringing together a group of professionals who perform a range of roles into the same room, to discuss clinical topics. An example of this is to have GPs, first contact physiotherapists, and clinical pharmacists into the same room to discuss the assessment and management of knee pain.
Below, you can download a summary of IPE (kindly written by Dr Abigail Thompson) and how it relates to general practice.
As an extension, you may wish to discuss the prospect of making more IPE happen with those who are responsible for your education locally, such as your VTS, or your Training Hub.