----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Rocke"
> Listen, people, all this talk worries me greatly. Why should we settle
for
> different conditions than other consultants who do not come in unless a
reg
> asks them to do so.
> The alternative is for us to agree to be resident for extended periods,
with
> APPROPRIATE levels of staffing. In Leeds, they have agreed with the Trust
> in principle to be there 9am to 9pm every day if there are EIGHT
> consultants. For 24/7 cover there would be SIXTEEN consultants. We all
> have a life outside medicine - well, most of us do. Lets cut out the crap
> and demand fair treatment.
I'd love to know how Leeds arrived at their figures Rocky. Sixteen
consultants is the sort of numbers you see in American or Australian units
i.e. where every patient is signed off by an "attending". For consultant
"presence" I don't believe you need these sorts of numbers. If you accept
that you only need 3 or 4 consultants by day (clinical, management and
teaching etc), one guy to do the night (followed by days off), then I figure
you could run 24/7 cover with 8-10 consultants at most (someone could do the
maths for me?). Remember we don't all need to be in from 9-5 like the
obstetricians, paediatricians and anaesthetists. I realise I may be talking
our specialty out of 16 consultant departments but if we ask for such
numbers we'll be ignored by government! Realistically however we can slowly
work towards 8 consultant departments, and personally I don't relish the
thought of signing off every patient like the Americans do, though no doubt
it'll happen someday! I expect BAEM are doing work on these numbers as we
speak?
Regards
Adrian Fogarty
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