Questions never to ask a PhD student:

So PAs can now ‘authorise’ cytotoxic medication.

Without legally being able to prescribe.

I’m sorry but this is illegal and needs police involvement now in all these cases that have come up

Climate change is already impacting health in Europe, and children are especially vulnerable. This recent report from the Lancet provides a summary of the data⬇️ thelancet.com/journals/lanpu…

Dr Rachel Clarke GMC As NHS patient, do I have a right to see a dr or have qualified drs operate or anaesthetise me?
Will it mean rejoining waiting list/queue for appt if not happy w PA/AA? Can I request to see/have supervising dr instead?
Seems like we patients are between a rock and a hard place.

Retweeting this as I am so deeply concerned about what GMC has apparently decided is safe for NHS patients - namely that, unlike doctors, physician associates don’t need national regulation at all. Trusts can just set local scope of practice for them.

Sheer, cavalier madness.

If doctors need 5 years of med school, rigorous medical training & national regulation & scope of practice (& trust me, we do) then why don’t PAs?

Why can a trust simply decide how it will let them loose at a local level?

This isn’t “safe” for patients, it’s the Wild West.

So I’ll call it, GMC. Far from being a competent regulator, I don’t think *you* are currently fit to practice.

I think you are failing NHS patients & exposing them to unacceptable risk.

And I’d like to understand why you continue to ignore & belittle our concerns?

Listen to the new episode of The Paeds Round podcast! Sanjay Patel discusses the Healthier Together project with our hosts Emma Lim and Christo Tsilifis.

Listen: bit.ly/RCPCH-paeds-ro…
Jonny Guckian Healthier Together Healthier Together North East and North Cumbria Healthier Together

Lots of exciting things happening in the first couple of weeks in July….

Thomas Day John Simpson Evelina London

They pay Physician Assistants a third more than doctors, and have the gall to call this “fair and reasonable” after clapping us on the streets during the pandemic.

We will take this fight into the next parliament and beyond, until the penny finally drops.

#JoinSTRIKEwin

Latest study finds air pollution in pregnancy & childhood is associated with psychosis & depression.

Noise pollution in childhood & adolescence is associated with increased anxiety.

TLDR: Our children need clean air.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

Our piece on the closure of a specialist GP practice in Glasgow that could leave homeless patients living with mental and physical health problems and destitution with nowhere to turn other than A&E has been jointly published in The Herald.

Read it here:
bma.org.uk/news-and-opini…

.Ben Kentish is spot on with the point he’s making.

But he’s got the figures for paying doctors properly slightly off.

The net cost of full pay restoration to the treasury is actually only about £1.1bn

They’ve made commitments over 4 x that value in just the last few days.

Isn’t it about time someone held the GMC to account? 🐻

So true. As a palliative care doctor I now find myself routinely having to have end-of-life conversations with elderly patients on trolleys in corridors. It’s unimaginably undignified & wrong,

And it didn’t used to be like this.

14 years of Tory policies have savaged the NHS.

What a lot of words to say absolutely nothing of substance.

This is a complete abdication of responsibility and an abject failure in the delivery of their core function of keeping patients safe.

Local governance you say?

We can go local too.

Patients of the UK, to save you a lot of reading, the onus is sadly once again on you to ask if the people putting you to sleep and controlling your airway are doctors. Or your family to ask on your behalf. The medical regulator has no interest in ensuring that for you.

GMC I have been mistaken for a GI surgeon before. Maybe I should head to theatre and have a go? I am sure a “local process” could be set up for me!

Oh wait - just realised that would be absolute madness - as I AM NOT QUALIFIED to do surgery.

What a colossal mess.

A fantastic PhD opportunity at the cutting edge of cancer research York Biomedical Research Institute Stuart Higgins Will Brackenbury University of York Biology at York York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS FT