Successfully aligning the PA needs of your Trust with the PA demands of your consultants can be a long and arduous task. To agree a contract with each consultant requires the successful juggling act of:

• Knowing the Trust's current PA requirements for each department
• Negotiating with the consultant to determine which direct clinical care PAs he can fill
• Determining an appropriate level of non clinical PAs

This task becomes infinitely harder when done with several consultants simultaneously!

Working with numerous Trusts we have seen why some implementations have succeeded and, sometimes, why they have failed. The key requirements of a successful implementation of the new Contract include:

• Successfully communicating your aims - by giving your doctors plenty of notice of the Trust's needs and intentions you will help to set expectations
• Being consistent - by setting out the process by which the Contracts will be negotiated avoids the risks that come when one Consultant feels he or she has been unfairly treated
• Effectively monitoring the process - only by carefully documenting your progress in allocating all the necessary PAs can you ensure you meet your targets.

To see how we have worked with Trusts up and down the country to solve these issues click here.