Only 12% of consultants in England believe that patient care has improved under the new consultants' contract, a critical report by the National Audit Office (NAO) says.⇓

The contract was implemented in 2003 and was supposed to provide better services for patients; increase productivity through improved management of consultants' work; and reward consultants for their NHS work through higher pay.⇓ It is based on an agreed “job plan” made up of 10 programmed activities of four hours each. The contract is the first update since the NHS was formed in 1948.

But a survey from the NAO of 2361 consultants compared time spent before and after implementation on patient care and showed no increase in time spent on direct care.

It …