Neonatal Physician associate on the ST 1-3 doctor on call rota .

At the level of ST 1-8 on the organisational chart

When will this madness STOP🛑
Janet Eastham Carol Vorderman Partha S Kar 🇮🇳🇬🇧🏏🎥 Dr Done NHS England ExplosiveEnema

‘The physician associate will be required to work autonomously in the practice’

RCGP what could possibly go wrong ?

⚠️ I’ve had patients assume “junior doctor” meant medical student level
- yet they’re doctors who just aren’t GP/consultant yet- no matter how senior

⚠️ I’ve had patients assume “physician associate” is a senior doctor because “the name sounds grander than GP”

Let’s not pretend…

Shocking example from the physician associate course matrix:

A PA, who can work AUTONOMOUSLY in A&E and primary care, cannot diagnose:

- ectopic pregnancy
- pre-eclampsia
- gestational diabetes
- miscarriage

Physician Assistants have successfully lobbied politicians to rebrand their profession to more easily deceive patients. Oregon will become the first state to permit the title Physician “Associate”

Patients deserve informed consent & transparency should come first
#StopScopeCreep

If you’re a physician associate please call this out if you hear a colleague describing their role like this as it’s both incorrect and dangerous to imply you’re doctors or equivalent to patients. I’ll be doing so too 🫡

How can a physician associate make ANY diagnosis when their own course matrix admits that there are many differentials (2A and 2B) that a PA can't diagnose? Are they just picking a dx from their mental McDonald's menu?

&

How can one manage, but not diagnose, a condition?

Oregon passed a law April 4th that says Physician Assistants can use the title 'Physician Associates.' However, the Oregon Medical Board must establish new regulations before the PA title is used in a clinical setting. The law takes effect June 6th.
medpagetoday.com/special-report…

I imagine this is how it goes:

Receptionist: what is the reason for the appointment?
Patient: I think I've got a UTI

Physician associate sees 'UTI' as the appointment reason.
Takes a history, does an exam.
Tells GP to prescribe abx.
Posts on Instagram that they cured a UTI.

A medical student would.

A physician associate will instead be called a victim and it’s the nasty med twitter trolls and she should be shielded and offer support.

Physician associate students in their first term are running their own GP clinics.

They are literally learning everything on the job.

This 'GP placement' also apparently didn't involve sitting in with any actual GPs.

If we're going to play semantics:

I don't consider Physician Associate to be a legitimate title.

They are laymen who've done a PA studies course (not a real Master's).

I could insist everyone calls me Magic Mike, but it won't give me abs or make people pay me to strip off.

Prof Colin R Melville I’m genuinely not sure who you think you’re fooling?

Patients are already confused by the name Physician Associate, saying PAs are Medical Professionals will just add to that.

As for PAs ‘working within competence’….that ship sailed long ago Prof Colin R Melville!

#NHSPAScandal 🚨
GMC

There’s a very toxic situation emerging, where doctors speaking up about the problems with the physician associate roll-out and associated de-skilling of the NHS workforce are being accused of bullying, in an attempt to discredit their concerns.

Don’t get me wrong, doctors…

Going to see a Physician Associate is like asking some random bloke on the street for a medical diagnosis. This dumbing down of the NHS has to stop.

Dr Dan Goyal And with newly qualified GP's not able to find permanent positions, because practices can now only afford Physician Associate/ Associate Physicians... It's only going to get worse !!!

Neena Jha The explanation for Physician Associate title change from Physician Assistant title has already been given recently. Physician Assistants in the USA were Extended Scope Practitioners (paramedics who went on to further learning). Physician Associates in the UK are not usually ESPs

vince Julius Lumbyte Some one did a FOI request to ucas asking how many physician associate applicants applied to medical school

whatdotheyknow.com/request/how_ma…

barttels Ahmad Barotchi Change ‘highly misleading’ physician associate title, says The BMA
pulsetoday.co.uk/news/clinical-… via Eliza Parr

⭐️It's almost time for our annual Teaching Excellence Awards, where students from our Medicine and Physician Associate programmes get to shout about the tutors and NHS colleagues who have had a positive impact on their studies.