Please submit to the Leng Review: Government will use this to destroy the NHS...

Leng.Review@dhsc.gov.uk

Dear Public,
You may have seen the Tory government’s plans to flood the NHS with PAs-“Physician Associates”- 10,000 PAs and 2,000 Anaesthetic Associates (AAs)
These have a degree (almost any degree) and take a two year course (mini-medics) PANE course
and they are supposed to be supervised one to one, not seeing new undifferentiated patients, each supervised by a real doctor.
The Tories squeezed these through in a standing order in the House of Lords, no Commons debate, late at night with pro-Tory Lords filling the chamber.
The Tory government have also persuaded the General Medical Council (any money changing hands?, £800,000 to > £8 million) to confuse the public, only with a prefix in the main Doctors register.
Patients believe “if they are on the GMC-they are Doctors: they are not!!!
They cannot prescribe, nor order ionising radiation.
Many pretend to be a real Doctor-Do not consent!
The Royal College of Physicians has also apparently been coerced (how-more money?) and stands to lose millions in contract penalties they have signed (as a charity?) to provide PAs.
They will not stop, or even pause, rollout, despite many Doctor’s concerns about safety, supervision, scope of practice.
Would you consent to a general anaesthetic given by an AA, with a JD or consultant anaesthetist a few operating theatres away?
The whole PA project is the government’s Political Apology for cutting the number of medical school places, JD training places, GP training places-resulting in a bottleneck for JDs training (the future consultants), shortage of GPs.
This is an intentional strategy to cut frontline staff before privatisation.
Doctor GP partnerships, Health Centres, cannot afford to recruit GPs, as the ARRS funding pot prohibits spend on GPs, but funds PA appointments. If not utilised, ARRS fund is taken away-ransom…

ASK: am I seeing a real Doctor, or a two year pretend doctor? Do not consent!
GPs income has fallen 30%: funding pegged at 2%-leaving them unable to pay overworked staff their well-deserved, but microscopic 6% award.
Inflation at 8-6% takes more from the partnership global pot, reducing partner’s income even further.
GPs are angry, burnt out, working on their days off, fearful-and leaving in droves, unable to keep solvent, dismissing and sacking real GPs, and whole practice partnerships returning their contracts and closing.
PAs and AAs must not be allowed to cause more deaths and misdiagnoses.
GPs have rejected the government imposed 2% contract, and voted for industrial action in the future.

Dear Professor Leng

I do hope your review is truly independent, and does not have the government's desired outcome already written.

The world, and the UK, needs more Doctors. The BMA are wrong to have suggested fewer.

The Treasury are wrong to reduce the medical school places, the government are wrong to restrict training places for qualified medics, in favour of PAs, AAS-who are an expensive, dangerous drag on the NHS system.

There are hundreds of miss-diagnoses recorded by PAs.

A real GP needs at least two years after GP training to become a skilled, knowledgeable GP. A PA has no chance of being competent. They are merely a government construct to

-beat down the BMA

-con the patients into believing they are seeing a qualified real Doctor.

The whole PA project should be halted immediately. I will never consent to a PA or AA-I value my life too highly!!!

Dear Professor Leng
There are several corrupt machinations about the whole PA, AA project:

1-The installation by Hunt of Massey-a DHSS man-onto the GMC, just to force the GMC to register, but not regulate PAs, AAs
2-£800k-2 million paid to GMC to register PAs-eventually
3-No SOP for PAS-each Trust make it up as they go along...

This all smacks of government giving free rein to PAs-and proceeding, come what may, despite the obvious dangers of letting these quack "physicians" loose on new undifferentiated patients
They are meant to be supervised in real time, one to one-but many "entrepreneurial" corporation-owned practices do not supervise-some remotely, half a dozen at a time, later!!!

All, this project is designed for is
-to beat down the JDs and BM<A for daring to strike over barrista's pay £16-18 an hour
(with £100k debt and seven years of NHS work)

-anaesthetic associates are left unsupervised-with the "supervisor" several theatres away...
- The GMC did not release the questionnaire results

Nobody wants PAs, AAs-especially GPs, for whom they are a monstrous, dispiriting, depression, increase in workload and threat to their GMC licence

Another coercion is to fund PAs through ARRS-but not real, valuable, skilled. knowledgeable Doctors

Unwanted, expensive, a government criminal con-trick to fool the public, and reduce frontline staff for privatisation (Musk, Black Rock...)

Stop the PA, AA project now!!!

Sincerely,
Steve Sanford
@BSmythee

where we have an absolutely brilliant GP training practice-no PAs!