Published: 21/02/2002, Volume II2, No. 5792 Page 25
I am disappointed at NHS Alliance chair Dr Michael Dixon's complaint that 'every time we look at how a service might be developed, the consultants come back and say we need another consultant'.
('Anxiety attack', news focus, 31 January). They say it because it is true.
We are woefully underdoctored in both primary and secondary care, hence government ambitions to employ 7,500 more consultants by 2004. Workload pressures are intense, with rising numbers of patients being treated by consultants who average 50 to 60 hours a week for the NHS.
Sometimes change can be achieved by reorganising processes or developing new roles for nurses and other staff, but this should be attempted in addition to, not at the expense of, consultant expansion.
GPs report that their own caseloads are becoming more complex. The same is true in our hospitals. We have a growing number of patients with complex and multiple health problems who can now be offered effective treatments, but will require intensive intervention from our most highly trained and skilled hospital doctors - our consultants. GPs and consultants share another concern: the desire to spend more time with individual patients. That too makes consultant expansion an inescapable necessity.
Michael Goodman Deputy chair Central consultants and specialists committee
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