Physician Associates: Minister hints at pause in expansion

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said there are “legitimate concerns” over the role of physician associates (PAs) amid worries they are being used to replace fully-qualified doctors.

He said he wanted to look into the issues around the roles before a planned expansion in the number of medical associates.

Mr Streeting acknowledged there were concerns around the tasks PAs were doing and transparency, with patients not necessarily realising they were not being treated by a doctor.

There has been an ongoing debate within the NHS about the use of such roles, with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges calling for a review into PAs and anaesthesia associates (AAs) to “clarify claims around their safety and usefulness in patient-facing roles”.

Mr Streeting told BBC Breakfast: “I am taking these concerns seriously and I’ve spent a lot of time listening to clinicians, listening to physician associates as well, by the way.

“I think they do have a role to play and can add value, not least in freeing up doctors’ time to do the things that only doctors can do.

“But I think there are legitimate concerns about the extent of doctor substitution and replacing doctors with PAs, there are issues around transparency.

“As patients, we should know who we’re seeing, who’s in front of us and why, and we’ve got to take those issues seriously.”

Mr Streeting said he would be saying more about the associate roles “in the coming weeks”, hinting an expansion in the number of the roles could be paused while work is carried out to address concerns.

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Source: Medscape, 13 November 2024

Read our interview this week with Asif Qasim, Consultant Cardiologist and Founder of MedShr, about the role of physician associates in the NHS and the patient safety issues.