A fifth of consultants say their supporting professional activities have been cut since they either transferred or started on the consultant contract.
This is the headline finding of a BMA survey of over 2,100 NHS consultants released today at the annual consultants’ conference.
Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the BMA’s consultants committee, fears that innovation in the NHS is at risk of being stifled as consultants’ SPAs are cut.
He said: “Pretty much every clinical service that a hospital provides has been planned during this time. If hospitals cut it, they risk stifling innovation and allowing the NHS to stagnate.
“This is being driven by the financial pressures we all face but it’s a false economy because the new services consultants develop often save the NHS money.”
The consultant contract’s SPAs reflect activities that are essential to the long-term maintenance of service quality but do not represent direct patient care. These activities include teaching, training, education, CPD, audit, appraisal, research, clinical management, clinical governance and service development.
Other findings from the survey include 15% saying their employer had reduced the standard number of SPAs for all consultants, and 24% say their trust had reduced SPAs for newly appointed consultants.
Nearly two thirds of respondents said the decrease in their SPA time was employer driven.
Of those respondents who reported that their SPAs had not changed, 91% said they would not be willing to accept a reduction in future.
The 2003 consultant contract recommends 2.5 SPAs in a 10 programmed activity contract, with a higher proportion of SPAs for those working part-time.
Read a guide to SPAs.
Tags: Consultant contract, SPAs
