NHS England has launched a survey on a career framework for physician associates (PAs), highlighting that the safety of patients ‘must be paramount’ when choosing to employ them.
Legislation to allow the GMC to regulate the roles was laid before Parliament via affirmative statutory instruments last month and the regulations are expected to come into force at the end of this year.
The legislation follows a consultation which had also suggested PAs could get prescribing rights in order to relieve pressure on GPs.
Now the commissioner said that the framework will ‘support employers to plan the development’ of medical associate profession (MAP) roles – including PAs – and ‘facilitate a greater understanding’ of these roles in the NHS.
However, it added that the safety of patients ‘must be at the centre’ of any new workforce configuration and ‘must be fundamental’ in any workforce planning.
It comes as a recent BMA survey found that the majority of doctors believe that the way PAs work ‘present a significant risk to patient safety’.
The survey, which will run until 2 February, said: ‘[The framework] provides guidance on supervision, setting out how people working at different tiers of practice could operate, making the point clear that in all eventualities the safety and well-being of patients must be paramount.’
The document also added that professional bodies will have more detailed guidance around supervision, especially in clinical context.
It added: ‘It is important to note that everyone must be aware of their own capabilities and should escalate/refer appropriately to ensure the safety of patients.
‘Individuals must practice in accordance with the requirements of their regulator and the supervisory requirements relevant to their role.’
NHS England also said that the new workforce ‘is more likely to be successful’ if staff are ‘fully engaged’ in the process right through from planning to implementation.
The framework identifies four ‘tiers of practice’ for MAPs – practitioner, senior, lead and principal – but said these are ‘not designed to be prescriptive’.
The survey added: ‘The framework is not suggesting there are 4 roles/jobs within MAPs; therefore, individuals may have many more “job-steps” in their overall career and employers are not limited to the number/types of roles they wish to have in their services.
‘Presently there are different routes to entering the profession and the regulatory context across MAPs operate in is different; meaning that each professional and their employer need to be cognisant of the correct regulatory framework they operate in.’
The BMA recently laid down its position on PAs, highlighting concerns around ‘patient confusion’ and an ‘unjust’ pay differential, and the RCGP has also updated its guidance, pointing out that PAs have ‘an enabling role to play for general practice’ but they ‘must not and do not replace GPs’.
Recently the GMC confirmed that PAs will get a seven-digit reference number with an alphabetical prefix in order to distinguish them from doctors.
However, the Government said it has no intention to change the title of PAs to avoid patient confusion.
In October, over 2,000 doctors expressed ‘grave concerns’ about the upcoming regulation in an open letter to the GMC.
See———-so simple
By refering to these unqualified roles as “practitioners” and “health professionals” completely undermines GPs and others in Primary Care who are qualified and able to undertake independent clinical practice. This framework seems designed to further reduce the professional status of GPs.
you can’t escalate a problem if you don’t know what you don’t know. Case in point already seen. Shortness of breath and calf swelling is not anxiety and a chest infection. You need a baseline level of knowledge or experience to know what is normal, before you can pick up what is abnormal. PAs do not have this after 2 years of sitting in a class room.
Bit late after their wholesale introduction 😂. Shame on ‘colleagues’ who facilitated this egregious devaluation of primary care.