Consultant physicians working with patients 5th edition - FSEM

Consultant physicians working with patients
Table 2 Non-medical staffing requirement for the service provided by an audiovestibular centre
Professional Child Adult Total (500,000) Total (250,000)
Audiologist Band 8 1 1 2 2
Band 7 2 1 3 2
Band 6 3 3 6 3
Band 5 1 3 4 2
ATO 2 2 4 2
SALT for hearing impaired 2 1 3 1–2
Educational audiologist/ATHI 2 0 2 1
Deaf role model/sign language teacher 1 0 1 0.5
Social worker/counsellor 1 1 2 1
Hearing therapist 0 2 2 1
Physiotherapist 1 1 2 1
Psychologist 1 1 2 1
Paediatric occupational therapist 1 0.5 0.25 ?
Nurse/healthcare assistant 1 3 4 2
Medical secretary 2 2 4 2
Receptionist 2 2 4 2
A & C records staff 2 2 4 2
ATQ = assistant technical officer; SALT = speech and language therapist; ATHI = advisory teacher for the hearing impaired; A & C = adult
and children.
Specialty and national guidelines
Table 3 gives details of AVM guidelines and audits.
Table 3 Audiovestibular medicine guidelines
and audits
� BAAP clinical standards and guidelines are available at:
www.baap.org.uk/index.php?option=com content&
view=article&id=48&Itemid=54
� NHS Newborn hearing screening protocols and
pathways: http://hearing.screening.nhs.uk/publications
� Royal College of Physicians working party report
Hearing and balance disorders: achieving excellence in
diagnosis and management. 1
� Department of Health documents Improving access to
audiology services in England; Transforming adult
hearing services for patients with hearing difficulty;
National service framework (NSF) for older people; NSF
for children, young people and maternity services; and
NSF for long-term conditions. All these documents are
available at: www.dh.gov.uk/en/
Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/index.htm
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6 Clinical work of consultants
Outside academic units, all AVPs work exclusively in
their specialty, almost entirely with outpatients. In units
where there are no trainees, work is direct rather than
supervisory but is always as part of an MDT.
Inpatient work
AVPs do not have dedicated inpatient beds, but in an
average DGH approximately four inpatients per week
are likely to be referred from other specialties for
diagnostic consultation.
Outpatient work
A consultant AVP working alone in an adult outpatient
clinic may see four to six new patients or 8–12 follow-up
patients per programmed activity (PA). In a paediatric
outpatient clinic, a maximum of six new or follow-up
patients may be seen. The number will depend on the
consultant’s experience, the complexity of the problems
and the availability of support staff. In some highly
specialist services fewer patients may be seen.
C○ Royal College of Physicians 2011