Helen Salisbury: Risk and responsibility when working with physician associates

One of the issues troubling doctors in general, and GPs in particular, is the question of whether they’re responsible—and indeed medicolegally liable—if a physician associate (PA) under their supervision makes a mistake. Other members of our multidisciplinary teams have their own professional registration, but PAs currently do not. There’s been much discussion of one case where a doctor in an emergency department was sanctioned by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service for failing to go back to take a collateral history and perform his own examination of a patient already seen by a PA.1Last week the General Medical Council’s chief executive, Charlie Massey, wrote to NHS leaders to offer reassurance that “doctors are not accountable for the decisions and actions of PAs and AAs [anaesthesia associates] who they supervise.”2 Although this will come as a relief, there was a rider: “doctors will not be held accountable provided they have delegated responsibility…
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