The BMA has appealed to MPs to carefully consider “ill thought through plans” that would allow the UK General Medical Council to regulate physician associates and anaesthesia associates, as legislation moves through parliament.
The BMA is one of many medical organisations that in recent months have raised concerns about associates being regulated by the regulator of doctors.
Matt Kneale, co-chair of the Doctors’ Association UK, has also called for the government’s plan to be stopped until issues concerning the scope and supervision of these roles are sorted out.
On 17 January the House of Commons Sixth Delegated Legislation Committee discussed the Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates Order 2024,1 a statutory instrument that, if approved by parliament, will enable the GMC to regulate physician associates and anaesthesia associates.2
The order having been passed by the committee, MPs will now have an opportunity to raise objections to it when …