Team management in the NHS--what is it all about?

Multidisciplinary management teams were a significant new element in the 1974 reorganisation of the National Health Service. It was a development which in the run-up to reorganisation (and since) commanded considerable interest and, in some cases, scepticism. (R.G.S. Brown et al, 1973, 40.) Although there had been experiments in team management before the change, particularly in hospital authorities, there was no national blueprint describing their composition and method of working. This was the new factor introduced in 1974 and management teams were established at region, area and district levels. Management teams are now five years old. Most had their first meeting before the appointed day in April 1974 and there is now a fair body of experience on which to draw to make a considered evaluation of their contribution to the management of the NHS.