Dark days for the Royal College of Physicians of London

The Royal College of Physicians of London (RCP) was established over 500 years ago to uphold professional standards in medicine, but now seems bent on lowering them. Senior officers appear to have engaged in Orwellian tactics to try to push through physician associate (PA) roles with scant attention given to patient safety. In the wake of an outcry over how the college has handled the PA debate, particularly after a contentious emergency general meeting (EGM) held earlier this month,1 an independent inquiry is urgently needed to investigate the questions of governance that face the college.Chief among these questions is the college’s ability to represent and advocate for its members’ views on PAs. The college took on hosting the Faculty of Physician Associates in 2015—a time when the PA role was constructed primarily as assisting doctors. At that point, nobody was talking about this new staff group substituting doctors.But by 2023,…
Read Original Article: Dark days for the Royal College of Physicians of London »