Doctors fear two-tier GP plan as rise of 'helpers' may put patients at risk
Doctors have warned that plans to increase the use of physician associates in the NHS could lead to a two-tier healthcare system and put vulnerable lives at risk.
They fear patients’ access to fully qualified GPs could be hampered by the changes – unless they go private. Physician associates, or PAs, do not attend medical school, instead completing only a two-year postgraduate course.
They were intended to help doctors with everyday tasks, working under supervision. But doctors told us PAs increasingly give medical advice and treatment.
The alert follows the death in 2022 of Emily Chesterton, 30, of Salford, from a pulmonary embolism after being misdiagnosed twice by a PA at a London GP practice.
The Government is now planning to treble the number of PAs working in the NHS. Dr Alison George, a GP from Newcastle, said it is a Tory “quick fix” to waiting lists that will lead to inequality. She said: “The public will be seen by, I believe, a ‘doctor-lite’ service – with a few doctors dotted about. To guarantee seeing a doctor, you’ll have to pay or be insured. It’s a downskilling, downgrading of healthcare which will affect people on lower incomes, and the vulnerable or disabled, more than people with money.”
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Consultant cardiologist Professor Mamas Mamas warned: “There’ll be a situation where those with private insurance will see a senior doctor and those without, increasingly, will see individuals with no medical training. Having PAs see unselected patients in primary care, in the emergency departments, doing procedures, I think it is inappropriate and not safe.”
In a British Medical Association poll, 87% of members felt NHS use of PAs and anaesthesia associates was “always” or “sometimes” a risk to safety.
The Department of Health said new rules to regulate both roles will be in place this year, adding: “PAs have worked in the NHS for two decades. They have been found to be safe.”
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