Physician associates: dissociated doctors

Verschlimmbesserung: an attempted improvement that will make things worse.There is a current plan to remedy the growing problems of a shortage of doctors, and of doctors who are now overstressed and clearly unhappy: to delegate some of their tasks to much lesser-trained physician associates (PAs).Will this help overall?Or will it further fragment and alienate our already ailing health care?The government's plan to increase the role of PAs as frontline NHS practitioners can seem, at first sight, both plausible and practical.So what do the authorities promise us?That offloading much of the doctors' work to faster-trained, so more numerous and lesser paid, healthcarers (PAs) will both save money and free up doctors to concentrate better on their more skilled work.Quicker service for patients; gains in quality and safety.But these plans will be undone by several oversights and mistaken assumptions.What are these?And what are their consequences?My view, largely from general practice, is that the errors fall under the following categories.