Physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs), who assist doctors in GP surgeries and hospitals, should be known as \u00ab\u00a0assistants\u00a0\u00bb to avoid confusing patients, an independent review says.<\/p>\n
The review recommends PAs and AAs wear standardised clothing and badges to distinguish them from doctors and should only see patients in limited circumstances.<\/p>\n
Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced the review last year, following a heated debate over the roles and responsibilities of the healthcare positions.<\/p>\n
The doctor’s union, the BMA, says the review should have gone further but the union representing PAs and AAs said the plan could make waiting lists longer.<\/p>\n
Review author Prof Gillian Leng talked to doctors, patients and the public to collect evidence on the safety and effectiveness of the roles of PAs and AAs.<\/p>\n
She said a clear vision \u00ab\u00a0was largely missing\u00a0\u00bb when they were introduced in 2000 and there was no national plan for how the new roles would fit into existing teams, resulting in growing \u00ab\u00a0confusion about the roles’ purpose and remit\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Where capacity was limited in local services, gaps in medical posts were sometimes covered by PAs, without taking into account their more limited training or ensuring that supervisors had the necessary understanding of the roles and the time and skills required to provide appropriate oversight,\u00a0\u00bb Prof Leng added.<\/p>\n
Prof Leng also listened to families of relatives who died after being treated by PAs, believing them to be qualified doctors.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Safety concerns raised in relation to PAs were almost always about making a diagnosis and deciding the initial treatment,\u00a0\u00bb says the review.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0It is here that the risk of missing an unusual disease or condition is highest.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
Emily Chesterton was told the calf pain she was experiencing in October 2022 was a sprain but it was in fact a blood clot. She died, aged 30, after being seen twice by a physician associate.<\/p>\n
Susan Pollitt, 77, was being treated by a PA in hospital two years ago after a drain was left in her abdomen for 15 hours longer than it should have been. She died from an infection two days later.<\/p>\n
Her daughter Kate says the family have never blamed the PA involved but want more clarity.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0As a family, when you’ve got someone in hospital, you don’t think straight because you’re just worried about your relative,\u00a0\u00bb she says.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Even though people are telling you who they are, you’re not registering it. So I do think it needs to be made clear, with the uniform and the badges and the name. So we do welcome that,\u00a0\u00bb Kate says.<\/p>\n
In other cases, patients said they were satisfied after seeing a PA and felt listened to, the review says.<\/p>\n
The review recommends physician associates should:<\/p>\n
Anaesthesia associates should be renamed \u00ab\u00a0physician assistants in anaesthesia\u00a0\u00bb or PAAs.<\/p>\n
In addition, patients should be given clear information about the role of a PA and there should be a faculty to represent PAs and set standards for training.<\/p>\n
Physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) were introduced into the NHS in the early 2000s to ease doctors’ workload.<\/p>\n
As their numbers grew, concerns were raised about the safety of the roles, the lack of clarity around their responsibilities and the impact they had on junior medics’ work and training.<\/p>\n
PAs are not authorised to prescribe medication but they can order certain scans, take medical histories and conduct physical examinations.<\/p>\n
Anaesthesia associates (AAs) support surgery teams and are a much smaller group.<\/p>\n
There are now more than 3,000 PAs and AAs in England but the NHS workforce plan envisages that increasing to 12,000 by 2036.<\/p>\n
Both PAs and AAs have to complete a two-year postgraduate course. To be eligible they need to have either a science-related undergraduate degree or be a registered healthcare professional already.<\/p>\n
The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges said there was a growing campaign against their use, fuelled by unsubstantiated claims on social media. It requested an independent review to set out the jobs they can safely do.<\/p>\n
PAs and AAs have been regulated by the General Medical Council, the body which also regulates doctors, since December 2024.<\/p>\n
Doctors’ training takes many years longer, and anti-social hours and exams are a regular occurrence.<\/p>\n
The British Medical Association has said PAs and AAs were being asked to do tasks they were not meant to do and the lines with doctors were getting blurred.<\/p>\n
Dr Emma Runswick, from the BMA, says the name change to physician assistants is \u00ab\u00a0positive\u00a0\u00bb but doctors haven’t got everything they wanted and more still needs to be done.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0Patients can know who they are seeing, but it does not make the key changes that we are looking for in terms of setting out what they can and cannot do.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0But we would be a fool to say that it wasn’t some progress.\u00a0\u00bb<\/p>\n
United Medical Associate Professionals (UMAPs) which represents PAs and AAs broadly welcomes the findings but has concerns, particularly over PAs only treating patients who have already had a diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0We believe this will only compound the backlog for appointments with GPs and consultants and entirely negates the benefit of having such highly trained medical professionals available on wards and in local surgeries,\u00a0\u00bb said general secretary Stephen Nash.<\/p>\n
Dr Hilary Williams, incoming vice president of the Royal College of Physicians, said the review was \u00ab\u00a0thoughtful\u00a0\u00bb and \u00ab\u00a0thorough\u00a0\u00bb, and showed that \u00ab\u00a0reform is urgently needed\u00a0\u00bb to ensure safe teamworking in the NHS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs), who assist doctors in GP surgeries and hospitals, should be known as \u00ab\u00a0assistants\u00a0\u00bb to avoid confusing patients, an independent review says. The review recommends PAs and AAs wear standardised clothing and badges to distinguish them from doctors and should only see patients in limited circumstances. Health Secretary Wes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placedesnations.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}