Managed clinical networks: scope, evidence and feasibility

Managed clinical networks (MCNs) are ‘hierarchically linked groups of health professionals and organisations from primary, secondary and tertiary care working together in a coordinated manner, unconstrained by existing professional (and organisational) boundaries to ensure equitable provision of high quality effective services’. The ambitious goals of MCNs include the extension of access to care and the parallel reduction of waiting lists; the increase in the qualitative level of services; and the better use of scarce resources, including finances, technologies and clinical expertise.