ABSTRACT
The development of ‘groups of workers’ coming together to look after a patient began with the emergence of the hospital. These institutions originated as part of the charitable and religious work of the medieval monasteries. They were the original ‘hospitums’ or guest houses for pilgrims travelling to holy shrines. They thus combined both the need for rest and recuperation as well as providing for medical help. They were open to all, but especially the young, the old, the infirm and the poor. By 1798 nearly every large town in the UK had
Introduction This chapter will focus on the development of inter-professional teamwork in the different settings in which care of patients is undertaken in the United Kingdom. Any description of inter-professional work will invariably run into the different use of language and definition, e.g. who does or does not belong to ‘the team’? What does the term ‘professional’ mean and, of equal importance, does general practice subsume primary health and care and how does primary care differ from primary health care? As yet, no shared understanding and ownership of these terms exists and the rapidly changing structures currently evolving mean that all workers alike are having to renegotiate assumptions and beliefs that have remained largely unchallenged for decades. Even a cursory survey of the ever-increasing literature on interprofessional work in health and social care will lead to, as one reviewer described, ‘a litany of disappointment and frustration at the patchiness or absence of fruitful and democratic communication between professionals’ (Kilcoyne 1991: 15).
