RCP is calling on NHSE to review its projections for growth in the physician associate workforce until issues of regulation, standards and national scope of practice are addressed.
The RCP campaigned long and hard for an increase in medical school places and, despite the ongoing lack of detail about postgraduate medical training places, we still think a long-term workforce planning approach is a key step towards a sustainably staffed health service in the future. However, medical students become doctors who need jobs in which they can continue to learn. They need teachers and supervisors and protected time to train.
Almost a year after the publication of the NHS England Long Term Workforce Plan (LTWP), we still don’t have the detail we need on how and where postgraduate training places will be increased, how it will meet changing patient demand, and how the NHS will train and supervise these new doctors.
NHSE must engage more effectively with clinicians and royal colleges on how they will deliver the LTWP. It should set out how and where they will expand medical school and postgraduate specialty training places, and how and when it will improve the granularity of specialty workforce data to inform future staffing projections. NHSE must identify the barriers to publishing this granular data and develop and fund a dedicated plan for specialty training based on population need. NHSE should also develop and deliver a plan to support educators and supervisors and increase capacity for medical education and training.
The medical royal colleges, faculties and specialist societies should have a greater role in national and local workforce planning for their specialties. Many of our members are feeling disillusioned and frustrated. To maintain the confidence of doctors in the LTWP, we need a more open, transparent approach to its implementation.
Following a vote of RCP fellows to limit the pace and scale of the roll-out of physician associates (PAs), the RCP is now calling on NHSE to review its projections for growth in the PA workforce until issues of regulation, standards and national scope of practice are addressed. Yesterday (4 June), the RCP confirmed that, following a vote of Council members, we will close the Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register as soon as the GMC becomes the regulatory body for medical associate professionals. From 13 December, PAs will be expected to join the GMC register.
The RCP will now advocate for a limit to the roll-out of the PA role, working with national bodies including NHS England, the GMC, NHS Employers and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges.
The RCP recently published a statement clarifying its financial relationship with the Faculty of Physician Associates. Recommendations 1 and 2 of the post-EGM short life working group have now been delivered in full. These are:
- The RCP should publish an update and send out member communications as soon as possible after Council on 21 May, with the working group recommendations and next steps agreed by Council, a statement clarifying the financial relationship between the RCP and FPA, and an explanation of how/who the RCP will lobby to limit the further expansion of the PA role (see paragraph 5 of this statement).
- The RCP should publish a statement/open letter setting out a revised policy position on support for the LTWP and share this with stakeholders, including NHSE.