Bernard Allen
Question:113 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Health if he proposes to introduce a system where work carried out by consultants in hospitals will be monitored as recommended by a person (details supplied).
Written Answers. - Monitoring of Consultants' Work.
The term "consultant" is defined in the memorandum of agreement attached to each consultant's contract as follows:
A consultant is a registered medical practitioner in hospital practice who, by reason of his training, skill and experience in a designated speciality, is consulted by other registered medical practitioners and undertakes full clinical responsibility for patients in his care, or that aspect of care on which he has been consulted, without supervision in professional matters by any other person. He will be a person of considerable professional capacity and personal integrity.
This definition does not provide for any supervision of a consultant's work. There is no provision for a higher tier of consultants to supervise other consultants.
However, the revised consultant's contract does oblige each consultant to participate in medical audit whereby the quality of clinical work is assessed through a system of peer review. I believe that this is a more feasible approach than the alternative suggested.