Executive Summary of Collaborative Working Project between RM Partners West London Cancer Alliance and Pfizer Limited

24 Aug 2022

Background 

For Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) meetings to derive their full benefit they need to be able to operate effectively and provide full multi-disciplinary input where it is needed, yet a study by Cancer Research UK in 2017 found there was not enough time in the MDT meeting to discuss more complex patients, with around half of patients discussed for two minutes or less.

For these reasons the Independent Cancer Taskforce Report recommended that NHS England should encourage providers to focus specialist time in the MDT meeting on those cases which do not follow well-established clinical pathways. This work remains central to ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan to improve access to specialist expertise in cancer care.

Project  

To build on the MDT workstream, we are working in collaboration with Pfizer to map current MDT practices and the patient flows to and from all solid tumour MDTs across west London. The project will also include a deep dive into two tumour types, to include an understanding of the infrastructure. This will identify the gaps between the current MDT meeting processes and the Independent Cancer Taskforce Report recommendations such that improvements can be supported

BENEFITS

1. Benefits to Patients

• Supporting better outcomes for cancer patients (e.g. improve decision making at MDT)
• Time at MDT for complex cases
• Shorter pathway for less complex cases
• Reduced variation between Trusts on MDT quality thus improving equity for patients

2. Benefits to NHS

• Efficiency in MDT working practice
• Healthcare professionals supported via standards of care produced by the Cancer Alliance
• Areas identified for improvement to enhance best practice

3. Benefits to Pfizer

• Knowledge and understanding of the MDT practice
• Knowledge and understanding of Integrated Care Systems