Physician associates are not a replacement for doctors, say RCP and GMC

The Royal College of Physicians has given its position on physician associates and said their employment should not negatively affect trainee doctors.

The news came after the General Medical Council’s chief executive, Charlie Massey, wrote to NHS England calling on it to tackle perceptions that physician associates and anaesthesia associates would “replace doctors.”

On 25 October the RCP held what it called an additional council meeting to discuss physician associates. The college has hosted the Faculty of Physician Associates, the professional membership body for the UK’s physician associates, since 2015.

The meeting was organised in response to a letter co-signed by more than 300 doctors,1 including 50 fellows of the RCP, that warned that the rapid expansion in numbers of physician associates and anaesthesia associates posed risks to public safety and to “professional jurisdiction.”

After the …