Physicians Associates

[DevilsKitchen]

I’ve just been prescribed something by a PA that is not recommended in pregnancy due to the risk of deafness and cleft palate.

I am only by virtue of being an inherently distrusting person that I am not now taking this. I mentioned I was pregnant and the PA said “oh yeah I’m pretty sure it’s fine” which to me is not good enough so I checked with the pharmacist who told me categorically no and go and ask for something else.

My colleague also had a bad experience with a PA when her daughter was prescribed something inappropriate for her specific condition.

And it’s no wonder is it? It’s two years training at masters level which is obviously nowhere near enough. It was a nice idea to try and reduce the waiting list and I don’t even think it’s their fault because they are doing their best but AIBU to say it’s time this experiment was ended?

I would like to say my surgery has dealt with it really well and I am now booked in to see an actual GP.

They are regulated by the GMC: https://www.gmc-uk.org/about/what-we-do-and-why/regulating-physician-associates-and-anaesthesia-associates Please don’t perpetuate myths.

It is not a perfect system and my view is that there have been issues in the use of PA roles, the way they were introduced and the previous lack of regulation . But there are issues with other health care professions and individuals in any job you may care to name. We just need to work at having a better system and continuing to improve how these roles are developed and used.

When I was pregnant I had a very severe chest infection.

A physicians associate told me I seemed anxious and told me to Google mindfulness.

Instead, I took myself to A&E, when I got the antibiotics I needed.

I know that wasn’t a great use of A&E - but I didn’t have another option for the healthcare I needed.

I too refuse to see PAs now.

It’s anecdata but it does appear to be a common experience that PAs do not refer to themselves as such unless pushed/questioned, certainly my experience of the few I’ve encountered. Presumably because as soon as patients find out they ask to see a real Dr!
It’s not their fault that the role itself was badly thought out and poorly implemented but it does seem like PAs are coached to be vague about their qualifications which is downright worrying

Not true, as F1s can't prescribe either!

There is a lot of mis-informatiom on this thread....🙄

The role is pointless when there are far more qualified, regulated people who can do it better, autonomously and are also able to prescribe.

Also not true... 🙄

Why don’t they continue upgrading nurses roles? Nurses have tons of experience and quite often know the patients.

Again which healthcare profession would not have ever been implicated in some way in avoidable harm? I guess art therapists may be able to reasonably say they haven’t but otherwise most professions, unfortunately, will have been represented in cases of avoidable harm including deaths.

Yes they can

Yes it was - driven by the UKAPA

From being found to have repeated acted beyond their knowledge and training?

Absolutely. There should never be such under qualified people making such serious medical decisions.

Under supervision and with the precriptiom countersigned by someone with full GMC registration...

What’s wrong with seeing a paramedic and them prescribing? You wouldn’t complain if the prescribed morphine if you broke you leg in an RTA.

Paramedics are prescribers anyway.

Nope. Driven and decided by Health Education England.

But this was the job of the pharmacist, who appears to have done it very well. The role of the pharmacist is to have an in-depth knowledge of drug interactions, safety in pregnancy, etc. Their knowledge of drugs far outweighs doctors, and if there are any complicating factors like pregnancy, existing medication, existing conditions etc, it's always worth checking with them that a new medication is safe.

The government recently accepted the recommendations of the Leng review that they should be renamed back to physician assistants. It also recognised there were significant legitimate safety concerns about the role.

www.gov.uk/government/news/patient-safety-boost-as-pa-review-recommendations-accepted

They have since backtracked from this and nothing is currently being implemented, subject to further consultation and review.

Pressure has been applied…

Well we certainly have an example of the problem on this thread…

@MooBaggage the prescribing safety assessment is generally sat at the end of medical school by all before they become F1s

So you admit you were wrong? Countersigning is not a GMC requirement.

I will going forward, but I imagine it would feel a bit odd as surely they should be offering that info without us having to dig it out of them. It's worrying!

What medication was it?