title: What do consultant occupational physicians do in the National Health Service? An audit.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the range of activities undertaken by National Health Service (NHS) consultant occupational physicians, and quantify the proportion of time spent on these so that appropriate guidance and a model job description may be developed by the Association of NHS Occupational Physicians (ANHOPS).
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was developed and sent to all full time consultant occupational health physicians (as recorded on the ANHOPS database).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Sixty-five questionnaires were sent out, of which 38 were returned (59%). Only 31(48%) of replies matched the entry criteria of being full-time NHS consultants returning fully completed questionnaires. An average of 18 h face-to-face clinical work (range = 0-36 h) over five sessions (range = 0-9 sessions) was found. Remaining time was predominantly spent on clinical administrative work although some consultants took on a variety of other managerial activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Responding full-time NHS consultant OHPs found it difficult to quantify and categorize their workloads, particularly for non-clinical work. Their responsibilities vary widely. Of use for job planning purposes is the average commitment of clinical sessions (five).
authors.affiliation: Occupational Health and Safety Services, Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, 30 Hallam Close, Hallam Street, West Bromwich B71 4HU, UK. Peter.Verow@swbh.nhs.uk
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verow
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007587:Job Description; D009787:Occupational Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013222:State Medicine / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom; D016526:Workload