What is the General Practitioner’s understanding of multidisciplinary teamwork?

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Background: The size and composition of multidisciplinary teams working in primary care has increased over the last twenty years. The views of General Practitioners about these changes have not been widely investigated. The aim of this project was to explore what general practitioners(GPs) understand by ‘multidisciplinary, primary healthcare teamworking ‘in the current climate.

Methods: A descriptive qualitative case study, using semi structured interviews was undertaken to explore the views of six GPs. Transcribed interviews were thematically analysed.

Results: Analysis of the interviews identified six broad themes. These were: practice team structure and function, GPs’ perceptions of their own role within the team, others ‘roles within the team, communication issues, constraints impacting upon change and lastly, relationships with external organisations.

Conclusions: Movement to multidisciplinary teams has meant that true personal continuity of care between individual patients and individual doctors is no longer possible, however, enabling the GP to let go of this idealised historical model of general practice is difficult. The extension of the team has implications for increasing the supervisory and leadership role of the GP, without GPs necessarily feeling that they have the skillset for extending that role. The transition from providing physician-only care to team care provision, is seen as inevitable, given the workforce strictures on general practice, but this study suggests it is not universally welcomed.