Physician associates and apprentices can’t replace doctors

We agree with Esmail and Everington that there is a severe shortage of doctors in the UK,1 but the creation of physician associates and medical apprenticeships to fill these gaps is shortsighted and unsafe.Physician associates undertake a two year postgraduate course of 1600 hours of clinical instruction, compared with a minimum of 5500 hours for a primary medical qualification.23 These courses are unaccredited,4 with no quality control, and are insufficient preparation to work independently. Several examples of poor outcomes for patients who have been seen only by physician associates have come to light.5 The authors rightly highlight that the lack of senior supervision might contribute to this. Increasing physician associate numbers without simultaneously increasing training numbers for doctors is therefore likely to lead to a greater deficit of consultants available to supervise, posing more potential for patient harm.In addition, it is grossly inappropriate that physician associates are paid more than…
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