Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made on outlining the clinical scope of the (a) role and (b) duties undertaken by (i) physician and (ii) anaesthesia associates.

On 20 November 2024, the Government announced that it had commissioned an independent review of physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs), led by Professor Gillian Leng CBE. The review will consider the safety of the roles, and their contribution to multidisciplinary healthcare teams.

As set out in the published Terms of Reference, the review will be an end-to-end review of the PA and AA professions, covering selection and recruitment, training, day to day work, scope of practice, oversight, supervision, and professional regulation. The review will report in spring 2025.

NHS England has issued guidance on the deployment of PAs and AAs in the National Health Service, which describes the expectations of how organisations providing NHS care should deploy them, so that they can contribute to the delivery of safe and effective healthcare in a supportive environment. This guidance remains in place whilst the review is ongoing, and is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/summary-of-existing-guidance-on-the-deployment-of-medical-associate-professions-in-nhs-healthcare-settings/

In the meantime, regulation with the General Medical Council has begun, and will help to ensure patient safety and professional accountability.