The health service in Northern Ireland is faced with finding millions in efficiency savings, and will struggle to do so if cuts to the protected time senior doctors can devote to improving the quality and safety of services continue, says the British Medical Association (BMA).

Northern Ireland consultants work constantly to deliver high quality care to patients. Some go further than that and are leading the way in developing new, innovative services that bring benefits to patients and save money.

Infectious Disease Consultant Sara Hedderwick and Carol Emerson, Consultant in Genitourinary and HIV medicine, both based at the Royal Victoria Hospital, are both featured in a new BMA publication, Quality Time.

This publication highlights the importance of consultants' Supporting Professional Activities (SPAs) – protected time for work such as the development of new services, research, safety audits and training.

It 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. 





Dr Carol Emerson has come up with a potentially life-saving sexual health outreach service that targets high-risk men who might otherwise slip through the net. The clinics work well on many levels.

For example, the cost per patient to the NHS for a sexual health check, including tests and vaccines, is around £110. But the prevention of illness is hugely beneficial to both patients and the service.

Dr Emerson depends on SPA time to plan the clinics and keep up to speed with the latest developments in sexual health.

Given that there are just 4.5 whole time equivalent consultants working in genitourinary medicine in Northern Ireland, protected time is very important to enable her to share knowledge and ensure that high quality, safe services are available.

Doctors in Quality Time say their achievements would have been either impossible or less likely without protected time. However, although the model NHS contract for consultants states that their working week should typically include ten hours of SPA time, there have been widespread cuts.

Over a fifth (21%) of consultants surveyed by the BMA earlier this year said the number of SPAs in their job plan had been reduced. More than one in seven (15.1%) said their employer had reduced the standard number of SPAs for all consultants, and almost a quarter (23.8%) said their employer had reduced SPAs for newly appointed consultants.



Speaking at the launch of the publication, Dr Steven Austin, Chairman of the BMA's Consultant Committee in Northern Ireland said:
 "Preventing consultants from spending time on anything other than direct clinical care would represent a betrayal of what patients deserve from the health and social care service. Patients value quality of care very highly, and expect it to be delivered."

(BMcN/GK)