The plan for the NHS workforce in England created under the Conservatives is already under review. Given Labour’s pledge to rewire the system – emphasising prevention and care delivered in the community rather than in hospitals – the overall staffing mix is bound to be reconfigured when the 10-year plan is launched next year. But amid these wider changes, and ongoing difficulties around workforce shortages, a simmering row about the role of physician associates (PAs) has become too hot to ignore. Wes Streeting’s announcement this week of a review, to be led by Prof Gillian Leng, showed that ministers have accepted the view of doctors that there is a problem.
The physician associate (PA) role was copied from the US. Television viewers of a certain age may well have had their first encounter with one on screen: Jeanie Boulet was a main character in the Chicago-set hospital drama ER. Not long after this, in 2003, the first PAs were employed in the NHS – initially with the title physician assistant. But since 2014 they have been known as physician associates – alongside a much smaller number of anaesthetic associates.
