Multi-Disciplinary Working – What are the barriers?

The RCOphth hosted an evening event on Thursday 1 December 2016, at which a panel discussed: “Multi-Disciplinary Working – What are the barriers?”.

A recurring theme of the evening was the need for good communication between the different professional groups. It was noted that high quality care was most likely to be delivered where there was a culture of respect for different disciplines, but sometimes extended roles were viewed with suspicion. It was acknowledged that tensions between different groups existed but many of these could be overcome by effective clinical leadership.

Communication should include systematic feedback on referrals. It was observed that there was a significant variation in the quality of referrals into the hospital eye service; most were of a high quality but a small minority of optometrists were too ready to refer and audit was a good tool for identifying those who needed specific support.