Consultant Question:

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► Give an example of a situation when you enhanced the efficiency of your department.
► How would you develop better links with other departments? or Primary Care?
► How will this specialty be affected by current NHS changes?
► How do you feel that the Trust should react to current changes in the NHS?
► Should we be worried about polyclinics?
► How can we make this specialty more community centred?
► What do you think about giving patients the choice?
► Do you think it is fair to link the PBR tariff to quality of service? How do you think that quality should be measured?
► How do you think that the Darzi report influences the future of this specialty?
► How can we best present data on quality to patients?
► Darzi's proposed approach is to link quality payments to patient feedback. What are the pros and cons of this?
► What would be the effect of having a clinical dashboard in the waiting room?
► How can patient feedback be measured in a meaningful way?
► Do you think that encouraging competition through patient choice is the best way to achieve good quality of care?
► How can we optimise the efficiency of our department?
► If the tariff for procedure X is £1000 and, after full optimisation, the best we can do is an actual cost of £1,050, what should we do about it?
► What is your opinion on the new revalidation proposal of relicensing + recertification?
► What do you think would be the best way to assess if a doctor is safe?
► How do you assess surgical competence in a trainee?
► Do you think that appraisals are useful or just a paperwork exercise?
► What do you think are the issues caused by the introduction of revalidation as proposed?
► How possible is it to maintain good teaching and training in the context of the EWTD?
► Do you think the increasing role of nurses / the introduction of physicians' assistants is a solution to the NHS's problems?
► The Tooke report talks about destigmatising staff grade. What did he mean by that and what role can you play in achieving this?
► Both Tooke and Darzi talk about doctors needing more management and leadership skills. What is wrong with the status quo? What role can you play in helping juniors gain more experience in both?
► What is the best way to assess if someone is fit to enter this specialty at ST1/ST3 level?
► Our aim is to develop a new service on xxx. How do you think we can about doing this? What hurdles do you foresee?
► When you visited me (Chief Exec), I told you about the direction the Trust was taking. What can you tell me about it and how can you contribute?
► Do we have anything to fear from ISTCs?
► When you make a patient information leaflet using patient groups, do you think they self-select and are therefore not necessarily unbiased? What level do you pitch your information at? Which side do you lean towards: explaining in very simple terms or more detailed? How do you stop yourself from using medical parlance?