Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to encourage practices to create salaried GP roles instead of using physician associates.

We have committed to training thousands more GPs across the country which will increase capacity in the system and take the pressure off those currently working in the system. NHS England is working to address training bottlenecks so the health service has enough staff for the future and we are providing £82 million to fund the recruitment of over 1,000 newly qualified GPs, via the additional roles reimbursement scheme, so patients can get the care they need.

Physician associates (PAs) can make a valuable contribution to patient care providing appointments and performing clinical and administrative tasks as part of the wider General Practice multi-disciplinary team with appropriate supervision. But they must not substitute the role of the GP within general practice.

GP practices are self-employed contractors to the NHS and it is largely up to employers to determine how best to staff their primary care network (PCN) or GP practice to best meet the needs of their population.