Physician Associates
What is it?
The role of Physician Associate is an innovative new health care professional who while not a doctor works to the medical model with the attitudes, skills and knowledge base to deliver holistic care under defined levels of supervision.
Physician Associates are healthcare professionals with a generalist medical education, who work alongside doctors providing medical care as an integral part of the multidisciplinary team. Physician Associates are dependent practitioners who can work autonomously, but always under the supervision of a fully trained and experienced doctor. They bring new talent add to the skill mix within teams, providing a stable, generalist section of the workforce which can help ease the workforce pressures that the NHS currently faces.
Health Education England North West office is working in partnership with three of the regions Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and healthcare providers across the region to support the development and implementation of Physician Associate programmes of training across the region.
Why do it?
Nationally the development of Physicians Associates forms part of the NHS’s transformation agenda and is aimed at supporting the need for the NHS to work differently in order to continue providing outstanding care to our patients.
Cost:
Funding in training @ Manchester School of Medicine, Liverpool Univeristy and UCLan (Preston and Whitehaven) is currently fully funded.
Qualified PAs are paid at AfC band 6 or 7 depending on experience.
How to take forward:
Contact: Judith McGregor
Physician Associate Programme Lead Health Education England North West Office
Last Updated: May 2019