Health secretary Wes Streeting has said he needs to ‘take stock’ of concerns around physician associates (PAs) before putting ‘the foot down on the accelerator’ to expand the role.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast this morning, Wes Streeting reiterated that there are ‘legitimate concerns about the extent of doctor substitution’ by PAs, and that he is ‘taking these concerns seriously’.
He also cited ‘issues around transparency’, stating that patients should know who they are seeing and why.
The health secretary also indicated that more information about Government plans for PAs will emerge ‘in the coming weeks’.
When asked whether NHS England’s plans to expand the PA workforce to 10,000 by 2036 will go ahead, Mr Streeting said: ‘Before we put the foot down on the accelerator to expand the number of roles, I think we firstly need to take stock on where we are, dive deeply into some of the challenges that are being put to us by the medical profession about the deployment of these roles.
‘Because I need to assure myself in order to assure the country that we’ve got the right people, in the right place, doing the right things.’
He also said that while he has ‘spent a lot of time listening to clinicians’, he also believes PAs ‘do have a role to play and can add value’ by ‘freeing up doctors’ time to do the things that only doctors can do’.
However, he pointed to issues around ‘replacing doctors with PAs’, which NHS England has emphatically warned ICBs and trusts against.
Earlier this year, before Labour’s election win, Mr Streeting said GP concerns around the role of physician associates need to be ‘seriously’ addressed, but that these staff members should not be ‘thrown out with the bathwater’.
In October, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges urged the health secretary to order a ‘rapid review’ into the safety and efficiency of physician associates due to ‘mounting concern’ among doctors about the expansion of the role.
NHS Employers also recently warned that expansion of the ‘poorly understood’ PA role is ‘particularly noticeable’ in GP practices.
Last month, the BMA threatened NHS England with industrial action over the lack of a scope of practice for physician associates.
The union’s UK GP Committee have also voted in favour of ‘phasing out’ the physician associate role in general practice.
Hmm…certainly sounds like he’s been listening to GPs and definitely to the BMA 🙄…
Let’s see, the GMC chair took a hard time and deflected from the points made/concerns by GPs
… Not only with PA but also ANPs paramedics pharmacists and other AHPs especially when it comes to undifferentiated illnesses. It should only really be a GP except for first presentations of minor illnesses fullstop.
Stop the rot. We train for 10 years for a reason.
Read what he said…before putting ‘the foot down on the accelerator’ to expand the role.
The PA idea isn’t dead it resting. Take a look, this government isn’t doing anything different. Its all more of the same. The only thing that has changed is the colour of the political spin machine. The same people with vested interests and fixed ideas who administrate the NHS. They all know each other, all went to the same University and all rotate through the same ‘top’ jobs. They set the agenda. You can change the politicians but the internal culture remains the same. Everything else is window dressing for the ignorant masses. Thats voters – you, me and your patients. They’ll do what they want. Because they know are you dont