Streeting explores concerns about the role of NHS doctor staff

Health Minister Wes Streeting said there are “legitimate concerns” about the role of physician associates (PAs), amid concerns they are being used to replace fully qualified doctors.

He said he wanted to investigate the issues surrounding the roles before a planned increase in the number of medical staff.

Mr Streeting acknowledged there were concerns about the tasks PAs performed and transparency, with patients not necessarily realizing they were not being treated by a doctor.

PAs are graduates – usually with a healthcare or life sciences degree – who have completed two years of postgraduate training.

Their role is to support doctors in the diagnosis and treatment of patients, and they can be deployed in GP practices and hospitals.

There is an ongoing debate within the NHS about the use of such roles, with the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges calling for a review of PAs and nurse anesthetists (AAs) to ‘clarify claims around their safety and usefulness in patient-facing roles’. .

Mr Streeting told BBC Breakfast: “I take these concerns seriously and I have spent a lot of time listening to doctors, including doctors’ colleagues for that matter.

“I think they can play a role and add value, not least by freeing up doctors’ time to do the things that only doctors can do.

“But I think there are legitimate concerns about the scale of physician replacement and the replacement of physicians with PAs, and there are issues around transparency.

“As patients, we need to know who we are seeing, who is in front of us and why, and we need to take these issues seriously.”

Mr Streeting said he would say more about employee roles “in the coming weeks”, suggesting an expansion of roles could be put on hold while work is done to address concerns.

Under the NHS long-term workforce plan, the number of staff will increase from around 3,500 today to 10,000 doctors and 2,000 nurse anesthetists by 2036/37.

Mr Streeting said: “Before we press the accelerator on expanding the number of roles, I think we should also first take stock of where we are and dive deep into some of the challenges posed by the medical profession about the deployment of these roles, because I have to assure myself, to assure the country, that we have the right people in the right place doing the right thing.”