Patients ‘not seeing benefits of new consultant contracts’

Patients on the NHS are not seeing the benefits of the recently negotiated contract for consultants on the health service, a new report has claimed.

The report from the National Audit Office (NAO) found that despite a 25 per cent increase in consultant’s pay compared with three years ago, consultants are in fact working fewer hours on average and the contract is thus not providing the full value for money that was expected.

According to the report, the average number of hours worked by consultants in the past three years has fallen from 51.6 hours a week to 50.2 hours, while they report that they are providing less direct clinical care to patients than before.

Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said: “Consultants are central to the work of our national health service and deserve to be paid properly for the work that they do.

“However, the new contract was introduced to benefit not only consultants, but patients and the health service in general.”

He added that, though it was necessary, the costs of the new contract had exceeded expectations while patients are yet to see the benefit in the way of improved services or productivity.

NHS Employers commented that the contract had succeeded in its aims of improving recruitment, controlling excessive workloads and properly rewarding those who work most in the health services, with the remaining challenge of bringing the benefits of this investment to patients.