Directory of European Resources > Eurocleft Clinical Network > Consensus Recommendations > Practice Guidelines Part II

Part II: Organisation of Services

1. Cleft care should be provided by a multidisciplinary team of specialists.
2. Members of the team should have special training in cleft care.
3. The team should agree on the stages of treatment including the examination, record collection and general protocols.
4. There should be one person responsible for quality improvement and communication within the team.
5. Co-ordination of the care of individual patients is important since numerous specialities are involved. This should be the responsibility of one member of the team.
6. The number of patients referred to the team should be sufficient to sustain the experience and specialist skills of all team members and to allow evaluation/audit of the team’s performance within a reasonable period of time. It has been recommended that cleft surgeons, orthodontists and speech therapists should treat at least 40-50 new cases annually. However, it is recognised that individual member states have the right to provide care for their own population.