Physician associates aren’t doctors and shouldn’t be regulated as such, says BMA

Senior doctors are urging MPs to reject government plans to regulate “physician associates”, whose growing use in the NHS has divided the medical profession.

The British Medical Association has said that allowing the General Medical Council (GMC) to regulate physician associates (PAs) would “blur the lines” between doctors and non-doctors.

Many medics are opposed to the increased use of PAs, who they fear patients will wrongly see as doctors, even though they do not have a medical degree. They have expressed concern that letting the GMC – which regulates doctors – regulate PAs from April, as ministers plan, is “potentially dangerous” because it could confuse the public, diminish the status of doctors, and leave patients at risk of being treated by someone without the appropriate skills.

The BMA is running advertisements in the Guardian and on social media asking MPs on a Commons committee examining the plan to vote against it when they consider it on Thursday. “PAs are not the same as doctors, and blurring the lines can have tragic consequences for patients who think they have seen a doctor when they have not,” the adverts say.

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Source: The Guardian, 18 January 2024