The BMA has taken aim at GMC resistance to guidance that would ban PAs from treating patients without supervision.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has raised concerns that attempts to make the regulation of physician associates (PAs) less restrictive could impact patient safety.
“Robust national scopes of practice are the basis of any solution to the dangers to patient safety raised by the way PAs are currently employed in the NHS,” says BMA chair of council Phil Banfield. “It has been worrying to see the GMC, a patient safety regulator, resist all calls to publish its take on the Royal Colleges’ attempt to set these scopes,” he continued.
In a report in The Telegraph, GMC fought against guidance that would ban PAs from treating patients without a senior doctor supervising them saying that it was too “burdensome”.
“Let’s be clear: patient safety should be the only priority when defining what PAs can do, not their employment prospects. Keeping patients safe is not burdensome – it is essential,” said Banfield.
PAs and anaesthetic associate (AAs) do not need a medical degree and have generally only studied for two-years. Although regulation of physician associates and anaesthesia associates has begun, as Healthcare Today has reported, their use remains controversial.
“The GMC goes to extraordinary lengths to control which doctors can enter postgraduate training and the clinical standards for doctors to be regarded as a fully trained general practitioner or consultant, but has washed its hands when it comes to PAs. It is difficult to imagine another regulator saying proper safeguards are too much of a burden over such a fundamental safety issue,” Banfield concluded.
