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Psychiatric Manpower and the Work of the Consultant

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

J. P. Watson
J. P. Watson*
Affiliation:
United Medical and Dental Schools, London Bridge, London SE1
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We are familiar with the idea that the distribution of consultants should be guided by ‘norms' supported by the College. Current norms have been derived from what is (or rather was at the time), not from knowledge of how consultants spend their time, still less on the basis of estimates of morbidity or demand. As Russell noted, a norm of one consultant for 70,000 people was developed using simple arithmetic when there were 700 consultants available to forty-nine million people. From this starting point, one consultant to 60,000 or 40,000 or 25,000 people suggests the possibility of an improved service, but it cannot be assumed that the service is better simply because more people are providing it. Evaluation of the consultant's contribution to a service requires, among other things, knowledge of what the consultant actually does with his time.

Type
Research Article
Information
Bulletin of the Royal College of Psychiatrists , Volume 9 , Issue 9 , September 1985 , pp. 170 - 173
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1985

References

1 Russell, G. F. M. (1973) Will there be enough psychiatrists to run the psychiatric service based on district general hospitals? In Policy for Action (eds Cawley, R. and McLachlan, G.). London: Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust and Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
2 Resource Allocation Working Party (1976) Sharing Resources for Health in England (RAWP Report). London: HMSO.Google Scholar
3 Social Services Committee (1981) Fourth Report: Medical Education with Special Reference to the Number of Doctors and the Career Structure in Hospitals (Short Report). London: HMSO.Google Scholar
4 Birley, J. L. T. (1973) The ghost in the machine. In Policy for Action (eds. Cawley, R. and McLachlan, G.). London: Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust and Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
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