The number of hospital consultants working in the UK is not growing fast enough, a report has warned.

Published on Thursday, the study by the Federation of the Royal College of Physicians found that the overall numbers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland increased by 4.3 per cent in 2002.

Growth was slightly higher at six per cent in Scotland, but the report pointed out that if all available posts had been filled, this would have reached seven or eight per cent.

The small increases will not help hospitals to fulfil their obligations under the European Working Time Directive, which will limit the number of hours staff can work once it is implemented.

Instead, increases of 16.9 per cent were needed, the report argued.

"The data shows just how hard consultant physicians are working and the pressures being experienced by them as well as the NHS as a whole," said Dr Rodney Burnham, director of the RCP's medical workforce unit.

"The difficulties in consultant recruitment, the effects of the European Working Time Directive and the various targets set for hospitals exacerbate this.

"Implementation of the new consultant contract may also make things worse. Consultants and hospital managers face tough choices in the coming year."

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health conceded that figures were not rising quickly enough.

But she insisted that action was being taken to tackle the problem.

"More and more consultants are joining the NHS," she said.

"Consultant numbers have increased by 26 per cent between 1999 and 2003, and training numbers in the acute specialities are being increased substantially to further boost numbers.

"However, we are aware that there is much more work to do in order to increase consultant numbers, and we are developing a number of initiatives to grow the workforce in this area - for example international recruitment schemes and the department's new consultant entry scheme."