Doctors' groups urge ban on physician associates seeing patients one-to-one

The NHS should slow or scrap the recruitment of physician associates (PAs), and ban them from seeing patients one-to-one, medical groups have told ministers.

- Denis Campbell

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP), which represents hospital doctors, has called for a rethink of government plans to increase the number of PAs in England from 3,000 to 10,000 by the mid-2030s.

It added they should not be allowed to run clinics without a senior doctor present, because they could pose a risk to patients' safety unsupervised.

"We're calling on NHS England to slow down the expansion of the PA role [and] review its projections for growth in the PA workforce," said an RCP spokesperson.

While the RCP is not proposing a number for how many more PAs the NHS should train and hire in coming years, it "believes their growth should be carefully managed".

Last month, Wes Streeting ordered an independent investigation into the role and competence of PAs, after a series of cases in which patients they treated came to harm. They include Emily Chesterton, who died after her blood clot was misdiagnosed by a PA as a calf strain.