The Consultant Survival Clinic run by PricewaterhouseCoopers is aimed at getting their hard-pressed Management Consultants to rethink their lifestyles. Demands placed on staff by the firm, clients and technology are increasingly unrelenting, and PwC have been finding that an steadily growing number of consultants have been becoming ill from overwork.

In order to persuade those attending the one-day course that it is something that needs to be taken seriously, trainers Michael McGannon and Juliette Chauvin-McGannon of the McGannon Institute of Proactive Health have been asking the consultants to bring a blood sample with them, and to complete a lifestyle questionnaire. The results can be unsettling, as the information is combined to produce a 'health age', which may well turn out to be greater than the person's real age.

Part of the justification behind the three-year-old programme is linked to the current buoyant employment market, and the difficulties which are being encountered in finding good new recruits.

The advice and guidance provided by the McGannon Institute is mostly common-sense, such as the importance of maintaining a healthy diet and the benefits of exercise. Those attending are also taught techniques in deep breathing and meditation.

No statistics are available to show whether the 440 partners and 250 consultants who have attended have put any of the tips they received into practice - Dick Watkin, PwC's partner responsible for recruitment in management consultancy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa says that one senior partner has cut his hours by a third - from 90 hours a week to 60 hours a week, which at least is a step in the right direction!