Emily Chesterton, who was just 30 when she died last year after a physician associate failed to spot a blood clot, instead mistaking the deadly problem for anxiety .
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The Royal College of Physicians will meet later this month to discuss doctors’ concerns about physician associates. It has hosted the Faculty of Physician Associates, the professional membership body for the UK’s physician associates, since 2015.
The news of the meeting came after the Royal College of Anaesthetists said it would hold an extraordinary general meeting about anaesthesia associates on 17 October, after a call from its members.1
Physician associates and anaesthesia associates are among the roles identified for expansion by the 2023 NHS Long Term …
Richard Marks explains why a group of anaesthetists is calling for a wider debate on increasing the number of anaesthesia associates
In the past I never really gave much thought to anaesthesia associates. I knew that they were science graduates or healthcare practitioners who did a two year course that allowed them to provide anaesthetic care. Theoretically, they always worked under supervision and with a very restricted scope of practice, although I had heard from colleagues that both of these restrictions were being breached. Yet there were only a few hundred associates in the country.
What awoke me from my indifference was the target in the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan to expand the number of anaesthesia associates to 2000 by 2036 a 10-fold increase from now.1 At the same time as this proposed expansion, there is a bottleneck of around 700 anaesthetic trainees who are without a higher specialty training post,2 stuck halfway through their careers as a result of poor workforce plann