Development and initial outcomes of an upper gastrointestinal multidisciplinary clinic.

Introduction: Patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer are often comorbid and require complex surgical treatments for their cancers, meaning that their preoperative assessment can be based around numerous outpatient assessments with multiple services. A multidisciplinary clinic (MDC) was developed for the assessment of patients with confirmed or suspected upper gastrointestinal cancers.

Methods: Face-to-face meetings were held between stakeholder services at Waitemata District Health Board, and clinic resource allocated.