Connecting clinical expertise to patient care
What is NHS Emeritus Consultants?
NHS Emeritus Consultants is an initiative to connect recently retired consultants across the country with organisations and teams looking to reduce waiting times for outpatient care. It allows trusts to capitalise on telehealth technology to enable these experienced, highly skilled clinicians to deliver outpatient care remotely, and flexibly, around their other interests, activities and commitments. As such, consultants can be engaged to provide clinical cover for leave, additional capacity, or backfill clinical elements of a vacant post.
It has been set up to help reduce the number of patients waiting for outpatient appointments by enabling retired specialists to support elective recovery efforts.
Benefits of registering as a provider
- Fill specialism gaps and increase capacity for your organisation
- Access top-level, highly experienced consultants nationally to complete elective care caseloads – supporting both your internal consultants and patients
- Reduce waiting lists by matching specialist consultants to outpatients waiting for care
- Select whether your Trust requires remote or in-person Direct Clinical Care (DCC) activity on the platform, to suit the organisation’s needs
- Easily track and access bookings with a bespoke mobile-enabled workforce management platform
- Minimise delays with a fast-track, 6-week set-up, making a quick impact on elective care waitlists and your NHS targets
Frequently Asked Questions
NHS Emeritus Consultants uses a cloud-based, digital platform to connect emeritus consultants with secondary care providers who require additional highly skilled and experienced consultant capacity.
Provider trusts will be able to enter required remote or in-person Direct Clinical Care (DCC) activity on the platform. Consultants with the relevant specialty training and experience will be able to view required clinical activities by specialty, signal their interest and availability and be considered for engagement and booking by the trust.
The scope of the programme does not include admitted care or other pathway programmes such as Urgent and Emergency Care, Primary Care or Mental Health.
There is no cost to consultants or providers to register on the NHS Emeritus Consultant platform. Neither is there any cost to providers to promote requirements for consultant cover. However, providers will be responsible for bearing the costs for delivery of the clinical activity, including consultant time.
NHS Emeritus Consultants will not accept registration of consultants via recruitment agencies.
Provider trusts who wish to engage an emeritus consultant will be responsible for:
- Registering their organisation on the platform
- Entering the clinical activity needing to be covered
- Reviewing consultants’ expressions of interest and suitability
- Selecting and booking (via the platform) the preferred clinician
- Providing a named clinical lead and local induction for the consultant
- Providing necessary systems access e.g., EPR, video platform, digital dictation
- Contracting with the consultant and approving timesheets
- Providing usual administrative support for clinical activity e.g., clerking in of patients, cashing up of clinics, typing and dissemination of clinic letters
- The short form below is available for soon-to-retire or recently retired consultants to register expressions of interest in participating.
- Consultants will be contacted to commence formal registration ahead of launch.
- The NHS Emeritus Consultants digital platform will be launched in autumn and be live for twelve months, allowing providers across England to promote requirements for consultant cover, and recently retired consultants to offer their availability and expertise virtually and in person.
Register your interest to access NHS Emeritus Consultants as a provider organisation
Expression of interest form
Providers will be contacted ahead of the launch with more information and registration instructions.