ABSTRACT
Introduction The National Health Service (NHS) 'Improving Working Lives' initiative1 makes it clear that there is an expectation that employers should promote a healthy balance between work and life outside work. There is also a wish to encourage flexible working, as this will aid the recruitment and retention of consultants in the NHS. Flexible working has tended to mean working part-time. However, it now has a much wider meaning. Certainly part-time working is still the main group but we are also seeing consultants taking on other responsibilities and changing their work patterns. With the advent of high-speed electronic links through the telephone network and mobile communications consultants do not have to be sitting at their desks. A lot of institutions have internet access to email and some allow access to the institution's computer servers and investigations. This means that consultants can work from home or another site as though they were sitting in their ‘office at work’.
