What are your thoughts on Physician Associates (PAs)?
The government has finally commissioned an inquiry into the role of PAs. Personally, I feel they can be a helpful and valuable resource within the NHS. However, the lack of a defined scope of practice has led to hospitals using them as they see fit, often interchangeably with doctors. This raises significant concerns.
Becoming a GP takes around 11 years of training, followed by a lifetime of continuous learning. Even with this extensive education and experience, doctors can still make mistakes despite their immense knowledge and skills.
In contrast, PAs complete a two-year master's program (which reportedly has a 100% pass rate) and are then entrusted with responsibilities that seem disproportionate to their training. in GP surgeries and Emergency Departments, PAs are seeing patients in roles comparable to doctors. In some cases, they are even performing invasive procedures and operating, it really is the Wild Wild West of medicine.
influenced patient care positively or negatively?
Each and every one I have worked with have been really nice individuals with their heart in the right place, but they just don't know the extent of the gaps in the knowledge, "the eyes can't see what the brain does not know"
The government has finally commissioned an inquiry into the role of PAs. Personally, I feel they can be a helpful and valuable resource within the NHS. However, the lack of a defined scope of practice has led to hospitals using them as they see fit, often interchangeably with doctors. This raises significant concerns.
Becoming a GP takes around 11 years of training, followed by a lifetime of continuous learning. Even with this extensive education and experience, doctors can still make mistakes despite their immense knowledge and skills.
In contrast, PAs complete a two-year master's program (which reportedly has a 100% pass rate) and are then entrusted with responsibilities that seem disproportionate to their training. in GP surgeries and Emergency Departments, PAs are seeing patients in roles comparable to doctors. In some cases, they are even performing invasive procedures and operating, it really is the Wild Wild West of medicine.
influenced patient care positively or negatively?
Each and every one I have worked with have been really nice individuals with their heart in the right place, but they just don't know the extent of the gaps in the knowledge, "the eyes can't see what the brain does not know"