Doctors warn on new medical assistant proposals
pharmafile | February 9, 2006 | News story | |Â Â Â
Doctors have warned that patients may be confused by new non-medically trained assistants, who the government want to carry out some surgical procedures.
The Department of Health announced plans to introduce Medical Care Practitioners (MCPs) into hospitals to assist doctors in surgery and even carry out the more simple procedures in their place.
The government wants to increase the NHS' capacity and improve the patient experience without having to train and pay new doctors, but the BMA has strongly criticised the plans in its response to a consultation.
The BMA says it wants assurances that patient care won't suffer or that the training of junior doctors wont be compromised.
It has called for the new role to be better defined and for patients to be better informed about the qualifications and expertise of MCPs.
Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the BMAs Junior Doctors Committee, said: "Caring for patients is not as straightforward as these proposals make it sound. Its not just a question of knowing how to do one routine procedure you need to be able to recognise when a patient has complications, and you need to know what to do when the unexpected happens.
"Our main concern is for patient safety, but these plans could also cause major workforce problems in the future. If all of a consultant's time is spent training someone who doesn't have the benefit of a medical degree, and all the simple procedures which allow junior doctors to learn their trade are performed by someone else, the quality of doctors' training will inevitably deteriorate. The risk is that in years to come the NHS won't have all the consultants and GPs it needs."
The doctors organisation says a recent survey showed most patients were happy to be operated on by a junior doctor, but that few were prepared to allow non-medically trained healthcare professionals to perform a procedure.
