As readers will be aware, the rumbling news story within the area of professional discipline has been the regulation of Physician Associates (“PAs”) and Anaesthesia Associates (“AAs”) by the General Medical Council (“GMC”). As already covered on our website, the British Medical Association (“BMA”) has raised concerns regarding the similarity of title(s) with doctors, the associated risks to patient safety and has suggested registration with the Health and Care Professions Council instead (see here: https://www.ridout-law.com/bma-calls-for-physician-associates-to-be-regulated-by-hcpc/).
As of tomorrow, 13 December 2023, the Government will lay down legislation permitting the GMC to begin the process of regulating PAs and AAs who work alongside doctors as part of a multi-disciplinary team. This new legislation will be called the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order (“AAPAO”). The Government states that regulation of these roles will “improve patient safety and allow the safe expansion of medical associate roles to support doctors and GPs” which coincides with their “long term plan to boost the NHS workforce and improve access for patients”. The Government’s Long-Term Workforce Plan sets out plans to increase the PA workforce to 10,000 by 2036 to 2037 and the AA workforce to 2,000 over the same period.
The GMC will commence regulating PAs and AAs at the end of 2024 and will ensure they are subject to the same levels of regulatory oversight and accountability as doctors and other regulated healthcare practitioners. Regarding the concerns raised by the BMA, the GMC have confirmed they will make it as easy as possible for PAs and AAs to be identified by members of the public and are “actively considering the format for the reference numbers that AAs and PAs will have when they join the register”. Currently, doctors are provided with an individual seven-digit GMC number on registration and it will be interesting to see whether the GMC adopts the General Optical Council’s approach of having an individual letter prefixing the registration number for PAs and AAs e.g. P[number] or A[number] as a means of example.
