From vision to reality--managing change in the provision of library and information services to nurses, midwives, health visitors and PAMs: (professions allied to medicine) a case study of the North Thames experience with the Inner London Consortium.

Abstract

One of the North Thames' pioneering consortia, the Inner London Consortium (ILC) is a complex body which includes NHS Trusts with teaching hospital university connections, community-based Trusts and general hospital acute Trusts. Within the consortium there are 12,000 trained nurses, midwives, health visitors and other professional staff working in the professions allied to medicine (PAMs), all of whom require access to and provision of appropriate library information services. In 1994, taking into account experiences elsewhere in the Region and nationally, it became clear that library issues were complex and would become acute with the move of nursing libraries from ILC Trust sites over a very short timescale. A report on the issues commissioned by the Consortium recommended that a library project, which built on existing NHS Trust PGMDE funded library resources and moved these to a multidisciplinary base to serve the consortium membership, be implemented. The objective of providing access to library information services for nurses and PAMs was achieved. Successes that emerged from the implementation included: The registration in Trust libraries of almost 12 000 new members within the initial 6-month monitoring period. The development of service level agreements and standards for the delivery of services to these new user groups. This paper describes the processes behind these significant and complex changes.