The last census we conducted was on the 30th September 2008
This is the RCP's 19th annual survey of consultant physicians in the UK.
2008 Consultant Census overview
- The return rate for the census was 55%, the remainder were verified with specialty societies and medical staffing departments across the UK
- The 2008 census report has been presented as a summary document for the UK, followed by individual reports and commentaries for each specialty
- Average UK expansion in consultant physician numbers in 2008 was 4.5%. Expansions in Scotland and Wales were higher than in England and Northern Ireland
- Consultant expansion in the medical specialties varied between -7.7% for allergy, and +85.2% for stroke medicine
- Advisory Appointments Committees appointed a consultant in 72.4% of cases; no appointment was made in 12.8% of cases and the AAC was cancelled in 13.0% of cases
- 13% of consultants work less than whole-time
- 26.5% of consultants are women
- 50.5% of SpRs/StRs are women
- Cardiology has the lowest percentage of female consultants and palliative medicine the highest. This is mirrored by female SpRs/StRs
- Consultants work an average of 11.6 programmed activities per week. Consultants in paediatric cardiology work the highest average number of hours.
- Less than a third of consultants said they felt the European Working Time Directive could be implemented without compromising patient care
- Most consultants always put clinical work above other types of work when working excess hours
- The census has looked at which specialties provide allergy services in the UK
- Nearly three-quarters of consultants experience increased work
2008 SpR/StR Census
- Census data on SpRs/StRs have been collected by the Federation of Royal Colleges since 2001
- The response rate for the 2008 census of SpRs/StRs was 36.0%
- Expansion of SpR/StR numbers reported in the 2008 census was 2.0%
- Female SpRs/StRs numbers increased from 45.1% (reported in the 2007 census) to 46.6%
- 25.3% of female SpRs/StRs work less than whole-time, compared with 1.0% of male trainees
- 13.0% of SpRs/StRs work less than whole-time
- Although the total number of SpRs/StRs has increased, the whole-time equivalent number has not done so because of the rise in less than whole-time working
- The average amount of time spent by SpRs/StRs training others is only 7.3%, with a wide variation between specialties.
- Over one-third of SpRs/StRs do not feel they have a mentor, which reflects poorly on the training environment