Trish Greenhalgh says an urgent inquiry is needed to investigate how the Royal College of Physicians of London has handled the debate on physician associates The Royal College of Physicians of London (RCP) was established over 500 years ago to uphold professional standards in medicine, but now seems bent on lowering them. Senior officers appear to have engaged in Orwellian tactics to try to push through physician associate (PA) roles with scant attention given to patient safety. In the wake of an outcry over how the college has handled the PA debate, particularly after a contentious emergency general meeting (EGM) held earlier this month,1 an independent inquiry is urgently needed to investigate the questions of governance that face the college. Chief among these questions is the college’s ability to represent and advocate for its members’ views on PAs. The college took on hosting the Faculty of Physician Associates in 2015—a time when the PA role was constructed primarily as assisting doctors. At that point, nobody was talking about this new staff group substituting doctors. But by 2023, PAs—whose numbers are set to expand rapidly in the next …

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伦敦皇家内科医学院的黑暗日子

Trish Greenhalgh 表示，需要紧急调查伦敦皇家内科医师学院如何处理有关医师助理的争论 伦敦皇家内科医师学院 (RCP) 成立于 500 多年前，旨在维护医学专业标准，但现在似乎决心降低它们。高级官员似乎采取了奥威尔式的策略，试图推动医师助理 (PA) 的角色，而很少关注患者的安全。在人们对学院如何处理巴勒斯坦权力机构辩论提出强烈抗议之后，特别是在本月早些时候举行了一场有争议的紧急股东大会（EGM）之后，1迫切需要进行一次独立调查来调查学院面临的治理问题。这些问题中最主要的是学院是否有能力代表和倡导其成员对 PA 的看法。该学院于 2015 年设立了医师助理学院，当时 PA 的角色主要是协助医生。那时，没有人谈论这个新的工作人员群体取代医生。但到 2023 年，PA 的数量将在未来迅速扩大……