Responding to the publication of the "rapid systematic review" of the efficacy and safety of UK physician associates and anaesthesia associates in the BMJ, Prof Phil Banfield, chair of BMA council said:

 "It is a sad indictment of NHS bodies and the Government that they all collaborated in the headlong rush to expand the roles of physician and anaesthesia associates without first amassing the evidence that their role was safe. In the circumstances they have been asked to practice in, a run-down NHS, the employment of PAs can neither be good value for money, nor safe for complex patients requiring the medical expertise of a doctor. Shockingly, this research suggests that NHS leaders’ reliance on the absence of evidence of safety incidents in a small number of research studies is ‘an error of logic that is likely to cost lives’.  

"By maintaining a postcode lottery, bizarrely supported by the GMC, in which different hospitals can decide what physician associates can and can't do, the NHS has created a genuine public policy scandal. The lack of both evidence of safety and a national agreement on what these roles can do is a combination that in any other field would have set off a chorus of alarm bells - yet healthcare policymakers seem content to charge ahead, having ignored the genuine concerns of doctors as well as warnings from coroners. 

"We hope the ongoing Leng Review will take on board the concerns raised here, but we can't wait for it - the recruitment and expansion of PAs and AAs must be paused right now and nationally agreed scopes of practice mandated. You don't fly a plane undergoing a safety review, you ground it.”

Notes to editors

The BMA is a professional association and trade union representing and negotiating on behalf of all doctors in the UK. A leading voice advocating for outstanding health care and a healthy population. An association providing members with excellent individual services and support throughout their lives.