Cuts in ‘protected time’ for consultants a false economy

09 December 2010

CUTS in 'protected time' for senior NHS doctors threatens quality and patient safety, according to a new report by the BMA.

The report, Quality Time, highlights the importance of protected time for work such as the development of new services, research, safety audits and training – so called Supporting Professional Activities (SPAs). The document features 21 consultants from across the UK who have used their SPA time to take forward initiatives that have improved the quality of patient care, frequently saving the NHS money.

The model NHS contract for consultants states that their working week should typically include ten hours of SPA time but this is being increasingly restricted. In a survey by the BMA earlier this year, 21 per cent of consultants said the number of SPAs in their job plan had been reduced. Over 15 per cent said their employer had reduced the standard number of SPAs for all consultants, and 23.8 per cent said their employer had reduced SPAs for newly appointed consultants.

In the foreword to Quality Time, Dr Mark Porter, Chairman of the BMA’s Consultants Committee, says:

"NHS organisations, increasingly squeezed financially and having to achieve more with less, are trying to reduce consultants’ Supporting Professional Activities in a search for 'efficiency'. At its worst this can lead to pressure to treat patients as units of production rather than as individuals engaged in a difficult journey at a testing time.

"We believe it represents a false economy. When consultants have time to reflect on services and improve them, they frequently save the taxpayer significant sums of money. The NHS has been tasked with saving £20 billion by 2014, but this already Herculean task will become even harder if staff are denied time to stand back and consider ways of working more efficiently."