NHS consultant manpower survey
Thank you to all those who took part in our recent survey of NHS consultant manpower. You may recall that the purpose of this was to estimate current Occupational Physician manpower in the NHS as a means of lobbying Health Education England for additional training posts.
Summary of results
- Response rate 46%
- 33% of responders work in the NHS
- 81% of NHS OHPs had MFOM or FFOM and 72% were consultant grade
- we counted the following number of consultants and specialty doctors by country (rounded to nearest w.t.e), total 78 consultants and 13 specialty doctors in the UK
- England 61 w.t.e consultants, 11 w.t.e specialty doctors
- Northern Ireland 5 w.t.e consultants, 1 w.t.e specialty doctors
- Scotland 6 w.t.e consultants and 1 w.t.e specialty doctor
- Wales 5 w.t.e consultants and 1 specialty doctor
- Approximate ratio of OHP to employees: 1 w.t.e OHP to 10,000 employees
- 77% of NHS consultant manpower was worked in the NHS and 23% was used to generate income from non-NHS organiations
- 80% of consultant manpower was used for direct clinical care, 14% on supporting professional activities and 6% on management duties.
- 83% of NHS consultant sessions are directly employed
- most of the 15% who were not directly employed were self-employed contractors
Conclusions
Health Education England base trainee numbers on an assumption of 60 employed consultant posts in England. This is an under-estimate of future manpower needs – which is at least 20% under-estimated when specialty doctors and sessional consultants are included. The number of trainees needed is even higher when the higher than average retirement rate for consultants over the next ten years is taken into account, and the 66% of responders who do not work in the NHS but who are likely to train wholly or partly in the NHS are considered.
Julia Smedley
June 2016