The notorious Labour Party conference bureaucracy may have successfully shunted a Socialist Health Association motion on Physician Associates off the prioritised agenda last month, but the controversy shows no sign of dying down since the change of government in July.
Indeed, so great has been the professional concern at the proposed expansion in numbers of Medical Associate Professionals (Physician Associates, Anaesthesia Associates and Surgical Care Practitioners) from around 3,000 to 10,000 as part of the NHS workforce plan that even the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges – conservative by reputation, has now written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting and NHS England chief Amanda Pritchard urging a “rapid review of the role of MAPs in a range of healthcare settings.”
The AMRC does not suggest who should conduct the review but insists that it should be “carried out by an individual or organisation with impeccable credentials for impartiality and neutrality and that it is carried out at pace with great thoroughness and academic rigour.”
Full article in The Lowdown, 13 October 2024