March of ‘reduced prices for doctors’: doctors’ union launches legal action against regulator the General Medical Council over ‘dangerous blurring of lines’ on the role of doctors’ employees

The doctors’ union will take legal action against the medical regulator due to growing concerns about the use of doctors’ employees.

The British Medical Association said it must take action before the “uncontrolled experiment” using less qualified staff “leads to more unintended patient harm”.

It is said that in patients there is a ‘dangerous blurring of boundaries’ between the roles of doctors and assistants, with some people not knowing who is treating them.

And it warned this will get worse if the General Medical Council (GMC) goes ahead with its plan to expand its regulatory powers beyond doctors to include PAs.

The NHS is implementing a massive expansion in the use of PAs, despite concerns that patients are being put at risk by workers with insufficient training.

Emily Chesterton, pictured, was just 30 when she died in 2022 after a PA failed to detect a blood clot. The actress was seen twice by the same PA, who told her she was suffering from anxiety and long Covid-19. Her parents say that at no point during the appointment was Emily informed that the person she was seeing was not a GP

She died in November after suffering cardiac arrest. A coroner concluded that her life could have been saved if she had been sent to the emergency room. The GP practice where Ms Chesterton was seen, the Vale Practice in Crouch End, now no longer employs PAs. Her parents are now warning of the dangers patients could face if they plan to expand the use of PAs

Norman Jopling, 79, from north London, suffered a severe brain haemorrhage after a PA wrongly told him his painful headache was nothing to worry about. His wife Maureen (right) accused the NHS of ‘cutting corners’ by allowing PAs to carry out ‘complicated tasks for which they are not qualified’.

More than 3,500 have already been deployed in England, and there are plans to train a further 1,000 each year, bringing the total to 10,000 within twelve years.

The workers do not go to medical school, but are typically expected to have a science degree or a clinical qualification before embarking on a two-year postgraduate course to become a junior doctor.

However, some universities offering the course have admitted to accepting students with a first degree in geography, human resources and English literature.

From December 2024, the GMC will become the regulator for physician and anesthesia assistants – collectively known as Medical Associate Professions (MAPs).

MAPs are under increased scrutiny following the death of Emily Chesterton in November 2022.

The 30-year-old had been under the impression she was going to a GP, but was actually seen twice by a PA, who on both occasions failed to notice that her leg pain and shortness of breath was a blood clot, which eventually traveled to her lungs. .

Leading doctors, including the Royal College of GPs, have called for a halt to the recruitment of junior doctors while concerns are addressed.

Professor Philip Banfield, chairman of the BMA council, said at the union’s annual meeting in Belfast: ‘Today I would like to announce that we are taking legal action against the GMC.

“We are taking this action because of the dangerous blurring of the boundaries between physicians and MAPs, specifically by challenging the blatantly unsafe use of the term ‘medical professionals’ when referring to people who are not physicians.

“This legal action is supported by our colleagues, the grassroots movement Anesthetists United, who will be pursuing an additional legal challenge.

‘We have had enough of the Government and NHS leadership eroding our profession.

“We stand up for both physicians and patients to block this ill-conceived project before it leads to further unintended harm to patients.

“It is not too late to row back from this uncontrolled experiment to weaken the medical skills and expertise available to our patients.”

Protesters, including doctors, gathered outside Parliament in protest at the transfer of responsibilities to Physician Associates on February 26, 2024. Pictured is Dr Robert Laurenson (third from left), co-chair of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, taking part in the protest

The BMA has previously argued that the GMC is not the right regulator for MAPs, claiming the move will ‘undermine and devalue’ the medical profession while confusing patients.

In the BMA’s action letter, it states that it is seeking to challenge the GMC’s decision to apply its central guidance for doctors – Good Medical Practice – equally to doctors and anesthetists once they come under the supervision of the GMC.

The BMA also challenges the GMC’s use of the term ‘medical professionals’ as a collective term for doctors, physician assistants and anesthetists.

The BMA is launching a lawsuit against the GMC over its use of the term, which it says should only be used to refer to qualified doctors.

Professor Banfield later added: ‘PAs are not doctors, and we have seen the tragic consequences of what happens when this is not made clear to patients.

‘Everyone has the right to know who the healthcare professional is that he or she is seeing and what he or she is qualified to do – and, crucially, not to do.

‘Doctors are ‘the medical profession’.

‘Describing other staff as medical professionals not only undermines doctors and the rigorous training they have undergone, but also confuses patients, who rightly associate the two terms as one and the same.

‘The central and solemn responsibility of the GMC is to protect the public from those who are not registered qualified doctors and pretend to be doctors.

‘It has become increasingly clear that broadening the term ‘medical professionals’ to include people without medical qualifications has had the effect of making this task much more difficult, while recent experience has now shown that this represents a dangerous blurring of this critical distinction. ‘

Dr. Richard Marks, co-founder of Anesthetists United, added: ‘Doctors and their patients are united in their opposition to the outgoing government’s plans to replace doctors with Associates.

“Taking legal action seems to be the only way forward.”