The primary objective of a consultant is to use expert knowledge and skill to diagnose and treat patients and ultimate clinical responsibility for their care.
This usually entails holding a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) in any of the recognised specialities, but academics with substantial publications and international reputation may be exempted from this requirement, in the expectation that they will practice at a tertiary level.
[2] The Central Consultants and Specialists Committee (CCSC), which is a Standing Committee of the BMA, agreed the following as a very broad description of the role of consultants:[1] "Primarily as the delivery of expert clinical care usually within a team, including the ability to recognise and manage the more complex end of the specialty spectrum (diagnosis, management decisions, difficult cases, including apparently simple cases which have a high incidence of complications in more inexperienced hands) but also involved in running departments, managerial decisions, teaching, training, researching, developing local services – generally being involved in the wider management and leadership of the organisations they work in, and the NHS generally.
After Modernising Medical Careers came into operation (in early 2007), the length of training was fixed for the majority of doctors, at about nine years.
[9] Other doctors - some without a CCT, a few who have only just obtained that qualification, others who have retired from substantive appointments, and others who wish to use some of their annual leave to generate additional earnings - may be employed as locum consultants, who have the same clinical responsibility, but are typically on fixed, short-term contracts.