12. Working with colleagues and working in teams
 

Health care is increasingly provided by multi-disciplinary teams. You are expected to work constructively within teams and to respect the skills and contributions of colleagues. Make sure that your patients and colleagues understand your role and responsibilities in the team, your professional status and specialty. If you lead the team, you must:
• take responsibility for ensuring that the team provides care which is safe, effective and efficient.
• do your best to make sure that the whole team understands the need to
provide a polite, responsive and accessible service and to treat patient
information as confidential.
• if necessary, work to improve your skills as a team leader.
When you work in a team, you remain accountable for your professional
conduct and the care you provide If you disagree with your team’s decision, you may be able to persuade other team members to change their minds. If not, and you believe that the decision would harm the patient, tell someone who can take action. As a last resort, take action yourself to protect the patient’s safety or health. Delegation involves asking a nurse, doctor, medical student or other health care worker to provide treatment or care on your behalf. When you delegate care or treatment, you must be sure that the person to whom you delegate is
competent to carry out the procedure or provide the therapy involved. You must always pass on enough information about the patient and the treatment needed. You will still be responsible for the overall management of the patient You must always treat your colleagues fairly. In accordance with the law, you must not discriminate against colleagues, including doctors applying for posts, on grounds of their sex, race or disability. And you must not allow your views of colleagues’ lifestyle, culture, beliefs, race, colour, gender, sexuality, or age to prejudice your professional relationship with them. You must not make any patient doubt a colleague’s knowledge or skills by making unnecessary or unsustainable comments about them.

GMC Good Medical Practice, paragraphs 30–33, 39, 28, 29

The excellent GP
- has effective systems for communication within the practice
- holds regular meetings with members of the practice team
- knows how to contact individual primary care team members outside meetings
- understands the health needs of the local population, and tries to ensure that the primary care team has the skills to meet those needs
- aims to develop an organisation which offers personal and professional development opportunities to its staff

The unacceptable GP
- does not meet members of the primary care team (e.g. district nurses or health visitors), or even know who they are
- does not know how to contact primary care team members
- does not know what skills team members have
- delegates tasks to other members of the team for which they do not have appropriate skills
- does not encourage staff to develop new skills and responsibilities.
- bullies or harasses his or her colleagues