Cancer care: Scrap formal MDT meetings for routine patients, says major review

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A review recommends that NHS cancer services stop requiring formal multidisciplinary team meetings for every routine patient and instead focus specialist discussion where it adds the most value. The proposed change aims to free oncology staff time and reduce waiting times, while retaining focused review for rare and complex cancers.

Formal multidisciplinary team meetings to plan NHS cancer care should not be automatic for every patient, a specialist review has concluded.1Instead, multidisciplinary expertise should be “focused where it adds greatest value,” including people with rare and less common cancers, experts advise.The recommendation to overhaul the current model of multidisciplinary team (MDT) meetings, which has been used in NHS cancer care for more than 30 years, is part of a plan to free up staff time in oncology services and reduce waiting times. The review has been led by the Royal College of Radiologists in partnership with the charity Macmillan Cancer Support.The college was tasked with leading a review to modernise MDT care as part of the government’s national cancer plan for England, published in February.23 Routine patients should not have to wait for the weekly meeting and should be able to progress safely through agreed pathways without unnecessary formal MDT...