Are general practitioners getting the information they need from hospitals to manage their lung cancer patients? A qualitative exploration.

The delivery of cancer services is primarily hospital-based; however, General Practitioners (GPs) have a key role to play within the context of a multidisciplinary model of care. In order to fulfill their role in cancer care GPs must receive complete and timely information from appropriate members of the hospital team. The aim of this study was to investigate perceptions of the quality, format and timeliness of the patient information GPs receive from a multidisciplinary hospital-based lung cancer team, and elicit how communication between the team and the GP could be improved. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews with a representative sample (n=22) of members of the hospital team and a sample of GPs (n=8). A grounded theory approach was used to categorise the data. Most communications with GPs were from medical officers; however, GPs desired information from all health professional groups in the hospital-based lung cancer team. Most GPs were dissatisfied with the timing of communication. A multidisciplinary discharge summary was suggested as a means of providing both clinical and social information from the team to the GP. Further developments in electronic health records could improve access to patient information by GPs. Results from this study illustrate the need for GPs to receive information from all members of the multidisciplinary hospital team so that they may fulfill their diverse role in supporting patients through all phases of the cancer journey.