Physician Associates involved in more than 40 ‘never events’ in last 5 years at Manchester NHS Trust

The NHS has been playing fast and loose using underqualified staff to fill traditional roles for a while. Assistant practitioners, Nursing Associates and now Physician’s Associates.

It was an incredible mistake pulling funding from Nursing degrees and its an incredible mistake giving cram courses to people with unrelated degrees so they can be on the ground making medical decisions in three years.

I dont hold the NHS responsible for this, they’re just doing anything they can to operate under a lack of funding

BAN these SCAM artists. They should NEVER have a job. Seriously, the tories have destroyed the NHS!

It takes resident doctors 3-5 years post-graduation to earn more than PAs, a degree covering but a fraction of what a medical degree does, and is less than half the length.

Yes this is not a surprise…. They’re vastly less qualified

This is terrible journalism.

Some number of negative events happened involving some group of providers.

How are we to know whether this group is more or less likely to cause these events that other providers?

Honestly don’t trust these ‘professionals’ as far as I can throw them. Anything that the GP receptionist deems a minor condition and so allocates to a PA or nurse, could turn out to be something serious only a highly trained doctor would suspect.

I went into the GP with abdominal and side of chest pain, shortness of breath, doubled over and was in too much pain to even be examined properly, hadn’t been able to lie down (literally) for days and said as much. PA diagnosed me with having pulled a muscle. Later that day I deteriorated even further and was wheeled into AnE with a bilateral pulmonary embolism.

Another time, turned out to be less serious (but easily could have been), me and my brother both had chest infections which weren’t clearing. A nurse looked in my brother’s throat and said ‘it’s a bacterial infection, he needs antibiotics’, we thought ok. Then she looked down my throat and said, I kid you not ‘yours is a virus, not helped by antibiotics.’

Now we had both fell ill at the same time, our coughs and illness were the exact same. So naturally my mum said ‘are you sure?’. She looked again, then promptly went ‘oh yeahhh, it is bacterial infection, I’ll prescribe antibiotics.’ I couldn’t really believe what I was hearing. We both took antibiotics and got better but … it does worry me that woman was allowed to prescribe.

Back on the subject of the PE, when I tell you this PA was 100% confident with her pulled muscle diagnosis, based upon the fact she had ruled out appendicitis. This is what happens when you give people with only a rudimentary medical knowledge the job of a doctor. Now I’m so done with it, I refuse to see anyone but a GP when I request an appointment from the GP surgery.