title: What do palliative medicine consultants do?
abstract: A workload study of consultants in palliative medicine was carried out, in which a task inventory questionnaire was sent to the consultant members of the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland. The median number of hours per week worked by a palliative medicine consultant was 49.5 (mean 51.3), excluding time on-call and breaks. The median consultant first on-call roat is 1:3. Palliative medicine consultants work a median of 22.5 direct clinical and 4.5 indirect clinical hours per week. This is very similar to the hours worked by consultants in other specialties who work an average 51.3 h per week, but with a median on-call rota of 1:6. Further studies are planned to monitor the patterns of consultant activity and workload in this specialty.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Oncology, Christie Hospital, Manchester, UK.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Makin
authors.forename: I G
authors.initials: IG
authors.lastname: Finlay
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Amesbury
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Naysmith
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tate
mesh_terms: D003253:Consultants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006699:Home Care Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017051:Hospice Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007494:Ireland; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*