Why is there so much hate towards the role of Physician Associate in the UK.

You need to make the distinction between their role on paper (e.g. what we are told their role officially is) and their actual role on the wards in 2023.

In principal, a PA is an excellent idea. They should basically act as little clinical secretaries for their doctor (remember - they were initially called physician assistants). They should document what the doctor wants, take bloods the doctor orders ect. This is what the government told the medical field in the UK 10 years ago. Things are very different know!

However, the mundane nature of this job soon bore down upon the PAs. They wanted to specialise into different areas of clinical medicine and become more engaged in medicine rather than simple administration - because it gives PAs the impression that they are like doctors. PAs have a huge inferiority complex. That is why we always hear of PAs presenting themselves as doctors to patients, or using deliberately ambiguous titles, or by changing their names from assistant to associate. NHS management also actively encourage the increasing scope of practice of PAs simply because PAs are cheaper than doctors in the long run...hence reducing overheads, and compensating for a shortage of real doctors.

They do not have the intellectual capacity or the motivation to deliver patient care equivalent to that of a doctor. If they did, they would not have done a sh*tty PA course at the university of Lancashire. If they did have the competence, they would have gone to Oxford to study MBBS, with an MSc intercalation, and then train in orthopaedics/plastics/ENT and become a real doctor.

PAs do not undergo rotational training. So they spend their whole life in the same crumbling DGH. As such, they begin to identify patterns amongst patients in that particular ward. They simply perform pattern recognition, without properly understanding the medicine behind. E.g. the consultant yesterday gave xxx treatment to Dorris because Dorris has the following symptoms yyy. Dave presented today with yyy, so lets give them treatment xxx like the consultant did yesterday. But applying such an algorithmic thought process requires understanding of the nuances in the flowchart....and PAs don't have the medical knowledge to make those nuances. So when Boris, an anomalous patient, shows up, the PA thinks she knows what she is doing. Look at me look at me im like a doctor, and then fuc*s up. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-66168798

If you only get AAA in A Levels, let alone a B, you should not be prancing around with a stethoscope on your neck pretending your a doctor. So dont tell me Sharron from Essex, who did a biomedical degree at the University of Colchester after doing 2 BTECs or getting AAB in her A levels, and then spent 2 years surrounded with other Sharrons in PA school, is equivalent to an F2.

*****ng hell they **** me off.

This view seems to already be full of bias towards the role of PA. The idea that every single PA has "an inferiority complex" is quite odd. Do you know every single PA currently working in the UK? If not then you are very much generalizing every one in the profession.

I feel as if your views are based on the idea that every PA wants to be a doctor. I don't believe that this is case. The whole profession is based of Doctors supervising while you practice and in the vast majority of cases this is how it goes, it can work if done successfully - and in a lot of places across the country it does work.

Also I just want to add the vast majority of medical schools in the UK only require AAA, and a lot of them allow you to reduce grades to AAB or lower depending on circumstances or other subjects taken.

Your views on this subject seem quite outdated and filled with bias towards the role. PA as a profession defiantly needs some re working, but with GMC regulation coming this should hopefully sort things out

Even AAA is sh*t. Standard should be A*A*A, Too many people get into medical school without having the correct competence. Even more so for PA school.

Well take it up with the unis and how is AAA “ sh*t” ?? AAA is a good set of grades to get only 30% on average get A/A* grades. Have you taken A levels? What grades did you get?

Well take it up with the unis and how is AAA “ sh*t” ?? AAA is a good set of grades to get only 30% on average get A/A* grades. Have you taken A levels? What grades did you get?

" 30% get A/A* " ....that is exactly the issue.
Would you trust 1 in every 3 people you cross in the street to be your surgeon. I doubt it.

A levels arent the only deciding factor for entry to med school tho. There are many other sections that you have to pass through to get in

And there is the issue.....The official roles of physician assistants and doctors are different, on paper. I agree with that. But, the reality is that, on the ground, physician assistants are being used as substitute doctors. And PAs get wet dreams from this. If anything endangers patients, its these random ass PAs thinking their 2 years of bullsh*t in Colchester uni is equivalent to a real MBBS.

You claim that, as of the present moment, their roles are different.

If their roles are different, why are PAs examining medical students in OSCEs?
If their roles are different, why are PAs teaching medicals students on placement?
If their roles are different, why are PAs going into theatre and running clinics whilst the poor CST, who's here to do surgery and infinitely more competent, has his training opportunities stolen?

A cub doesn't learn how to survive from a mother goose, but from its mother tiger.

I bet you in 10 years time, physician associates will have access to the same postgraduate training as doctors. Does that seem reasonable? Do you want the local PA, called Susan, who's got her 3 cm acrylic nails and piercings everywhere, on the core surgical training programme, taking the place of an actual *****ng doctor. Because with this bs, that is what is gonna happen. And guess what, the justification for such a decision will be that, "it promotes inclusivity....Susan came from a single-parent household, she's vegan, and in a wheelchair ect. so she deserves widened excess". And the real reason is that NHS trust managers can't be fuc*ed to train actual doctors, and prefer to pocket the money to fund their second home, all while training cheap PAs.

Yes, the physician assistant role is good on paper. But the role has been transformed into something completely different. Once you understand this you'll have made a great step. Until then, I'll never train physician assistants. Or treat them that is. **** them.

What is your issue? Show me on the doll where the PA hurt you ........

For starters, I had an offer for BMBS but after careful consideration, I declined and applied for PA the following year.
I don't want the responsibility of a doctor, I want a decent life/work balance so I can spend time with my family.

I really hope you are not a doctor with that attitude - and I am so happy you never want to train PAs as we don't want you.

Oh and BTW it is Physician associate NOT assistant - so please try and at least get the job title correct before putting it down if you want people to take you seriously.

So why is there so much anger around them?

No actual arguments addressing my questions....just emotions.

If their roles are different, why are PAs examining medical students in OSCEs?
If their roles are different,Yes, the physician assistant role is good on paper. But the role has been transformed into something completely different. Once you understand this you'll have made a great step. Until then, I'll never train physician assistants. Or treat them that is. **** them.