TY - JOUR T1 - Please can we have our nursing teams back? JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 26 LP - 26 DO - 10.3399/bjgp17X688633 VL - 67 IS - 654 AU - Edin Lakasing Y1 - 2017/01/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/67/654/26.abstract N2 - The recent history of healthcare planning is such that the distinction of being the clumsiest has several nominees. For me, however, that dubious honour belongs to the decision to move district nursing and health visiting out of practices and into community clinics. How ironic that, while the rhetoric is about interprofessional working, the reality is that a central diktat is promoting silo working.When I first arrived at my practice just under two decades ago, we were in the throes of assembling an outstanding integrated healthcare team. Practice nurses, district nurses, health visitors, midwives, counsellors, and physiotherapists were all based in the surgery with the GPs, facilitating ready, often informal communication about patients. In addition to core clinical care, we learned, taught students, researched, and published together. Clinicians gained knowledge of areas outside their usual expertise to such an extent that roles eventually overlapped; for example, the practice nurse would be confident helping the … ER -