Multi-skilled health carers: nature, purpose and implications.

Multi-skilling has been the most enduring element of patient-focused care in the UK. A recent report from the Manchester University Health Service Management Unit (HSMU) extended the multi-skilling debate and offered a framework for changing National Health Service workforce policy along multi-skilling lines. Examines the main HSMU issues in the light of broader empirical and other evidence. Assesses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to multi-skilling. Concludes that multi-skilling protagonists still face a number of challenges.