In its recommendations to the Leng Review, the BMA reports on the safety concerns raised by doctors about the use of physician associates.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has said that the NHS must stop gambling with patient safety in its use of physician associates (PA) and anaesthesia associates (AA), as it continues its attack against their use.
This follows a long-awaited court case about the role of PAs and AAs that it brought against the General Medical Council (GMC) in mid-March and a study by researchers from the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine that was written to inform the ongoing government-commissioned Leng Review which is examining the effectiveness and safety of these roles.
The BMA has said that it will be putting more than 30 recommendations to the Leng Review that seek finally to end the growing patient safety scandal surrounding the education, training, deployment and regulation of physician and anaesthesia associates, which has tragically led to multiple preventable patient deaths.
The BMA is calling for physician associates and anaesthesia associates to be renamed. It says that doing this, alongside introducing a national scope of practice, will help avoid patient confusion and prevent further tragic safety incidents in which patients thought they were being treated by a doctor when they were not.
Safety concerns
The BMA’s submission to the Leng Review also includes new data from one of the largest surveys of the medical profession on the topic of PAs and AAs, with more than 16,000 doctors and medical students taking part.
In the survey, 95% of respondents want a national scope of practice to clarify what PAs can and can’t do; 77% of respondents think that NHS leaders can’t make the PA role safe; and 83% of respondents don’t think PAs should be able to provide initial care to patients in general practice and the emergency department.
“Included in our submission to the review is a report of the safety concerns raised with the BMA through our safety reporting portal,” said BMA chair of council Philip Banfield.
“It includes first-hand accounts that demonstrate just why it is so important that NHS England immediately introduces interim safety measures, including a mandatory scope of practice for these roles. The NHS must stop gambling with patient safety. You don’t fly a plane under safety review, you ground it,” he continued.
The BMA has repeatedly called for interim safety measures while Professor Gillian Leng undertakes her review, including introducing a mandatory scope of practice for these roles until the Leng Review is able to report.
