Partha Kar: Sorting out the mess around medical associate professionals

The whole situation around medical associate professionals (MAPs) is an unqualified mess. What had been dismissed as social media noise has snowballed into something much larger. Statements have been issued by NHS England and the General Medical Council; the BMA is now walking into the debate1; and the medical royal colleges are starting to show unease.The present debate—occurring at the same time as disputes about doctors’ pay—has created a cohort of medical trainees asking why these MAP roles exist and why there’s no national regulatory framework or definition of scope for them. Trainees are looking at the weirdness of it all, finding themselves unable to attend training days or pick up training opportunities, while MAPs do. Cue understandable friction.Leaving the scope of these roles vague has meant that individual NHS trusts and GP surgeries have used them as they see fit, which is questionable at best and dangerous at worst….
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