I have been a doctor for six years and am concerned about the one-sided media coverage of work in the NHS. I was fired along with three other PAs at my practice. This is happening all over the country. The NHS has spent 20 years investing in the training and employment of thousands of us, but now it has pulled the rug out from under us, put an end to our careers and removed skilled labor from a strained system. I lost someone. And for what?
The cases in which the mistakes mentioned in your editorial (21 November) were made are sad, but not unique to the PA role. As a team leader of 12 medical professionals, I worked hard to provide excellent patient care. Because the system has been able to get away with it, it has used us as a cheap resource and decided that we are the problem. The emotional and economic impact this has on PAs is significant. Additionally, access to primary care appointments will worsen.
Name and address provided
If properly trained, regulated and supervised, physician collaborators can be a huge asset to the NHS. Over the past five years that I have been a GP, our team has greatly benefited from having two full-time PAs under the GP's supervision. They bring advanced skills, typically in addition to a degree in biomedical science, after two years of intensive medical-based training with supervised learning in a medical setting. Our patients value them.
Due to increasing demand for our services and increasing complexity of care, we have expanded the size of our team, but because we have not been able to afford (or find) a general practitioner, we have We've added other experts trained to diagnose and manage problems.
We should welcome the review commissioned by Wes Streeting (Wes Streeting orders a review of the role of physician assistants in the NHS, 20 November), but we should welcome some of the hostility from the medical establishment. It should be noted that this may appear protectionist rather than in the best interests of the patient.
Dr. Charles Heatley
Sheffield retirement GP
The debate over the role of physician assistants in the NHS is rooted in dogma. It doesn't matter whether the person administering the treatment is a doctor or not. What is important is that anyone providing care is trained and qualified to do so, practices according to the correct guidelines, and has access to support and guidance whenever situations arise that take them out of their daily routine. This applies equally to PAs, residents, and experienced consultants.
In cardiothoracic surgery, surgical PAs (known as surgical care practitioners) have been working with surgeons for 20 years, and there is substantial evidence that they have improved the quality of care and training of residents. there is. There is no reason why such a model cannot be applied to other disciplines.
Samer Nashef
Consultant Cardiac Surgeon, Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge
It baffles me that we need physician assistants when we already have well-trained nurses to fill specialized roles. In the 1990s, I trained several senior nurses to become experts in gastroscopy (passing a fiber optic telescope to examine the esophagus and stomach). They were doing this at the theater next to me. I go to my local hospital twice a year to have a similar telescope inserted into my bladder by a urology nurse. There are also nurses who specialize in asthma and diabetes. Why unnecessarily duplicate professions?
Dr Giles Youngs
Retired Consultant Gastroenterologist, Drinkston, Suffolk
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