LAUSR

Jeremy Hunt tweeted on 18 September, “PAs [physician associates] used to be looked down on as ‘drs on the cheap’ but now widely welcomed as reducing clinician stress & burnout.”1 Is he right? In 2015 the NHS sought to bring 200 physician associates from the US into English primary care and hospital specialties, through the National Physician Associate Expansion Programme.2 The aim was to train new physician associates (PAs) in the UK to work with, and then replace, the US sourced associates. Around 600 PAs now work in the UK, to rise to 3200 in the next three years. The training is a two year postgraduate course, and Hunt has mandated 1000 new posts in primary care.3 The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has set up a Faculty …