Physician Associates

Opened the debate

Dr Poulter raised concerns about the severe shortage of healthcare professionals in England, including a need for more doctors and proper regulation of physician associates and anaesthesia associates. He argued that doubling medical student places to potentially add 60,000 doctors by 2037 is essential but stressed regulatory and safety concerns with expanding associate roles without addressing training standards and patient safety issues. Dr Poulter highlighted multiple adverse incidents involving associates, called for separate registers and clearer scope of practice guidelines, and requested flexibility in the additional roles reimbursement scheme to hire more GPs.

Government Response

Stephenson acknowledged the importance of patient safety and care, noting that roles like physician associates work alongside doctors. He emphasised doubling medical school places to nearly 15,000 by 2031, stressing this will not replace doctors but support them. The Minister discussed existing training programmes for physician associates and assured ongoing consultations on regulation with the General Medical Council (GMC) to ensure quality standards. Stephenson highlighted plans for a new shared outcomes framework to maintain consistency in training. He also addressed specific points about fitness-to-practice regime, indemnity cover, and scope of practice clarification, while assuring that doctors will remain central to patient care.