ABSTRACT

The management of cancer through multidisciplinary teams is an established component of all national cancer guidance. The evidence that teamwork in cancer care benefits the process and outcomes of care is limited to one or two cancers, but the technology is probably transferrable to other sites. The desire of advocates of better cancer services to redress the above deficiencies has been seriously constrained by recurrent financial difficulties, and was further compromised by the mechanisms of the NHS internal market, which rendered difficult additional investment in specialist regional services such as radiotherapy. In a review of the NHS Research and Development Strategy's priorities, the highest priority in the cancer section was to improve the infrastructure for cancer research in the NHS. Prompt and high-quality clinical information is at the heart of any clinical networking arrangement. One of the fundamental weaknesses of the NHS has been its inability to generate patient-related information which is of value to clinicians.