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’re brilliant if you get the right one. I’ve had one who thought she was god, but the others have listened to me, given me the medication I needed, and been polite and friendly.

That is exactly the role of the pharmacist - wholly in the scope of practice. When I was junior doctor, pharmacists would come on the ward round and would go through all the patients’ drug charts and sign each drug off with their green pen, add queries etc and contacted us to make amendments.
All discharge prescriptions are checked and issued by the hospital pharmacy.
The pharmacists are vital colleagues but perform an entirely different role from the team of doctors

Is this a journalist looking for bad PA stories ???????

OP hasn't been back. I suspect because their attempt to create a story to discredit PA's failed.

I don't think it failed judging by the almost entirety negative responses and some quite worrying ones.

Yep. Also quite happy if this is the case - the more publicity about the PA scandal, the better.

I had an absolutely awful experience with a PA, well my DH did. The person involved lead us to believe he was a fully qualified GP. My DH is not a person who goes the the dr, so that itself should have rang alarm bells 6 visits in 3 weeks after maybe a visit once every 2 or 3 years for the previous 15 years. It was only when I cemetery lost my shit and rang 111 an ambulance arrived very quickly and he ended up in hospital for 3 months. I do not trust them at all. I would strongly advise anyone who has any doubts to seek a second opinion. The consultants in hospital were less than complimentary about him as we're the paramedics who rang him up to ask him what on earth he was playing at. Luckily my husband recovered, he almost didn't. Trust your gut anyone who thinks they are being fobbed off. We didn't look into legal action, the amount the NHS pays out in compensation is staggering, we were lucky, I would rather someone more affected got the money. Be very wary.