Consultants' pay goes up, but productivity goes down, MPs told

doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7552.1232

BMJ 2006;332:1232 (27 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7552.1232

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Consultants’ pay goes up, but productivity goes down, MPs told

London Andrew Cole

UK consultants are being paid more as a result of their new NHS contracts, but productivity has probably diminished, the House of Commons health select committee, examining workforce planning, heard this week.

Professor Alan Craft, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, explained that the contract had helped highlight the huge amount of overtime most consultants were working.

“Most consultants were probably working 60 hours a week. The standard has now gone down to 10 sessions, which is less than 40 hours. Employers have been working towards reducing everybody to the minimum number of contracted hours. So probably as a result productivity has gone down.

“In the long run it will be safer for patients because more consultants will be doing that work, but each of them will be doing fewer hours than they did in the past.”

It had also, he said, exposed the “myth . . . [Full text of this article]

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