PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Lachlan Ayres AU - Rebecca Hughes AU - Trevor Brooklyn AU - Ian Shaw AU - Roland Valori TI - Introducing an annualised contract for a consultant team in a district general hospital AID - 10.7861/clinmedicine.13-3-222 DP - 2013 Jun 01 TA - Clinical Medicine PG - 222--226 VI - 13 IP - 3 4099 - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/13/3/222.short 4100 - http://www.rcpjournals.org/content/13/3/222.full SO - Clin Med2013 Jun 01; 13 AB - The majority of physicians work a weekly timetable consisting of programmed activities (PAs) defined by the consultant contract. This paper describes the implementation of an annualised contract within a gastroenterology department, which is located across two district general hospital sites within the same trust. The perceived benefits of the system include the introduction of a new out-of-hours emergency endoscopy service, more efficient backfilling of vacant endoscopy lists and greater transparency of work patterns and workload between colleagues and within the trust.