Just read something really shocking on Twitter/X and had to share. As parents we need to be aware of what’s going on in our NHS because this is seriously worrying.
Children’s hospitals like Alder Hey have been letting physician associates (PAs) – not doctors, but people with just a 2-year qualification – do child protection medicals! These are exams that check for signs of abuse or neglect and can end up in court cases. The guidance I can see says these should be done by experienced doctors with years of training. But somehow these hospitals have been letting underqualified staff do them instead.
It gets worse. A PA at Alder Hey has probably done hundreds of these exams in the last few years, and it seems she might’ve even misled lawyers into thinking she was a doctor! This isn’t just poor judgement, it could surely lead to miscarriages of justice?! Imagine a child being wrongly taken away from their family, or an abuser walking free, just because the proper medical assessment wasn’t done by a real doctor.
I get that the NHS is under pressure, but this is too much. You wouldn’t let someone who isn’t a qualified mechanic fix your brakes, so why should it be ok for unqualified people to assess if a child’s been abused?
The hospitals are now backtracking, but how long has this been going on? How many kids have been affected? This isn’t politics, it’s about keeping children safe and making sure this never happens again.
How can we trust the system when this is happening? Am I overreacting or is this actually terrifying? Would love to know what
others think.