Consultant physicians working with patients - Royal College of ...

2 Specialties Clinical pharmacology and therapeuticsTable 2 Consultant work programme/specimen job plan for a NHS consultant clinical pharmacologist workingin a DGH, based on 10 PAsActivity Workload Programmed activities (PAs)Direct clinical careEmergency duties arising from acute receiving(24 hours) including dealing with poisonedpatientsInpatient (ward rounds, referrals, MDTmeetings)20–30 patients 1–220–25 patients 1–2Outpatient clinics 15–20 patients 1–2Administration directly related to patient care(eg referrals, notes, complaints,correspondence with other practitioners)Public health duties, eg medicinesmanagement: running a drug and therapeuticscommittee, managing a formulary, developingprescribing policies, health technologyassessment, drug information services1–21–2Supporting professional activities (SPAs)Work to maintain and improve the quality ofhealthcareOther NHS responsibilitiesExternal dutieseg CPD, teaching and training, managementof doctors in training, audit, job planning,appraisal, revalidation, research, contributionto service management and planning, clinicalgovernance activitieseg Caldicott guardians, clinical audit leads,clinical governance leads, undergraduate andpostgraduate deans, clinical tutors, regionaleducation advisers, medical managementresponsibilitieseg work for national NHS bodies, work for otherexternal bodies (eg MHRA, CHM, NICE, royalcolleges, GMC, PMETB, BMA), NHS disciplinaryprocedures, NHS appeals procedures, advisoryappointments committees2.5Local agreement with trustLocal agreement with trustnon-medical prescribing both in primary andsecondary care. This area of practice is likely tocontinue to grow.6 The subspecialty interest of hypertension andvascular risk management is widely practised byclinical pharmacologists and is going to becomeeven more important with the rise in prevalenceof obesity and metabolic syndrome.7 Those clinical pharmacologists with othersubspecialty interests, such as epilepsy, asthma, orclinicaltoxicology,willalsobeabletocontributetoNHS trusts’ clinical workload.8 As all NHS trusts are required to have a research anddevelopment portfolio and to undertake recruitmentto portfolio studies, clinical pharmacologists, whoarealltrainedinresearch,cancontributetothisactivity and facilitate other clinicians to take part.References1 Royal College of Physicians. Clinical pharmacology andtherapeutics in a changing world.Reportofaworkingparty. London: RCP, 1999.2 Royal College of Physicians. Governance in acute generalmedicine. Recommendations from the Committee onC○ Royal College of Physicians 2013 79