Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDamien Moore
Main Page: Damien Moore (Conservative - Southport)Department Debates - View all Damien Moore's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(2 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberFirst, I wish a happy St David’s day to the hon. Member and all those celebrating. I would be happy to meet her on this issue. The Government greatly value the role of physician associates. She knows that they bring new talent to the NHS and act in an enabling role, where they can help healthcare teams with their workload. Physician associates will be regulated by the General Medical Council, and the Department has consulted on draft legislation on just how to do that.
I am very interested in hearing proposals on patient self-referral. I am happy to meet my hon. Friend. From a cancer perspective, we are also potentially looking at self-referrals for skin diagnosis for possible skin cancer and for breast lumps, because we want to reduce waiting times and increase GP capacity.