HC Deb 06 July 1992 vol 211 cc66-8W
Mr. Mackinlay

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what guidelines or advice are given to house officers employed in national health service hospitals who are invited by their consultants to accompany or attend their practices and clinics in private hospitals;

(2) what guidelines are given to consultants with national health service contracts who also have contracts with private hospitals or clinics, about the accounting of their time distributed between their two contracts, their use of national health service equipment and their direction of house officers and other national health service employees.

Dr. Mawhinney

No central guidelines are issued on these matters. However, under their terms and conditions of service, whole-time and maximum part-time consultants are expected to devote substantially the whole of their professional time to their national health service duties. In addition, a whole-time consultant must certify annually that his or her gross income from private practice does not exceed 10 per cent. of his or her gross salary.

Where private practice is undertaken by a whole-time consultant outside the national health service hospitals where he or she is contracted to work, it is to be so limited that significant amounts of the consultant's time are not spent travelling to and from private commitments.

Consultants should be aware that junior doctors practice (including house officers) may only undertake private work outside the times for which they are contracted to an employing authority.