BMA Reporting Portal Submissions: Physician Associates and Anaesthesia Associates (3 April 2025)

Summary

In November 2023 the British Medical Association (BMA) established a reporting portal for doctors and medical students to share concerns regarding the deployment of physician and anaesthesia associates in both primary and secondary care. This report includes all submissions received by February 2025 that concern patient safety.

This report presents evidence of doctor substitution, doctors being coerced or pressured into signing prescriptions or ionising radiation requests for patients of whom they have no knowledge, examples of doctors losing out on basic skills training and situations where neither the public nor other healthcare staff know the role or competencies of physician and anaesthesia associates. It also highlights examples of where harm has come to patients, or been narrowly avoided only by subsequent intervention from a doctor.