Specialist registrars' plans for working part time as consultants in medical specialties: questionnaire study
BMJ 2001; 322 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.322.7302.1578 (Published 30 June 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;322:1578
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Hugh Mather's paper is welcome and the results are
clearly valid, broadly speaking. Nevertheless, he and
the BMJ should not be able to get away with saying that
"more than 40% of all specialist registrars in medical
specialties are considering working part-time" when it
was in fact more than 40% of RESPONDENTS to his
questionnaire, which had a response rate of 55%.
There is no discussion of this point, and it weakens the
paper.
My only competing interest is that I am a flexible trainee
who has just secured a part-time consultant post.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Hugh Mather has raised the important implications for workforce
planning of trainees’ intention to work part-time. He found that 69% of
female SpRs in medical specialties would possibly to definitely consider
part-time working as a consultant.
A large scale survey of trainees in North Thames, using methods
described previously (1), was carried out in the winter of 2000/2001 and
achieved a 1389 responses from specialist registrars (response rate 70%).
This revealed that 48% of women specialist registrars across all
specialties had definite plans to work part-time in the future compared
with 7% of men. 34% of women and 5% of men intended to work part-time
after their training was completed. Domestic commitments were the reason
given for intending part-time work by 76% of women and 16% of men.
The percentage of women SpRs definitely intending to work part time
after training varied by specialty: 67% in A&E, 52% in psychiatry, 47%
in ophthalmology, 36% in paediatrics, 31% in medical and surgical
specialties, 28% in anaesthetics and 19% in obstetrics and gynaecology.
These figures make it clear that intentions to work part-time in the
future are not confined to the medical specialties. As Dr Mather rightly
says, the implications for workforce planning are considerable and must be
factored into calculations of the numbers of doctor needed in training.
Elisabeth Paice
Dean Director, London Deanery
1. Paice E, Aitken M, Cowan G, Heard S. Trainee satisfaction before
and after the Calman reforms of specialist training: questionnaire survey.
British Medical Journal 2000;320: 832-836
Competing interests: No competing interests
Are we training part time consultants or part time staff grades?
Dear Sir
I read with interest Mather’s study on specialist registrars' plans
for working part time as consultants in medical specialties.(1) This
study found an apparent need for part time consultant posts, but did not
address the issue of what will happen if part time jobs are unobtainable.
We have previously surveyed all flexible trainees in psychiatry in the
West Midlands regarding their attitudes to part time working as
consultants in the future. (2) All of the flexible trainees at the time
of our questionnaire were women and unsurprisingly 79% indicated a
preference for a part time consultant job.
Perhaps more interesting was the number of flexible trainees (80%)
who said they would consider a non-career grade post if a part time
consultant post was unavailable. Is this an apparent lack of ambition or
merely a sense of realism? Other research has shown, approximately 50% of
women work part time within hospital medicine, but, only 20% of consultant
posts are part time. (3) In the past more women have worked in
specialties that were less popular or where there was a consultant
shortage. (3). Do we know if it is these specialties that are threatened
with a reduction in National Training Numbers (NTNs)?
However, as Mather has found, it is not only women who require the
flexibility of part time work. While an alteration in the number of NTN’s
may make arithmetic sense, other fundamental issues such as flexible
working patterns and the role of the modern consultant need to be
addressed. With the proposed new consultant contract and an increasingly
prescriptive culture within the NHS, this seems unlikely.
Lucy Caswell
Specialist Registrar in Old Age Psychiatry
West Midlands.
1 Mather H. Specialist registrars’ plans for working part time as
consultants in medical specialities: questionnaire study. BMJ 2001;
322:1578-9.
2 Caswell,L Lowe,K Part Time Trainees : Will it Lead to Part Time
Consultants? . Psychiatric Bulletin 2000; 24: 64-65.
3 Davidson, J.M., Lambert, T.W. and Goldacre, M.J. Career Pathways and
destinations 18 years on among doctors who qualified in the United Kingdom
in 1977: postal questionnaire survey. BMJ 1998; 317: 1525-1428
Competing interests: No competing interests