Doctors alarmed by UK physician associates performing neurosurgery and toe amputations
Doctors in the UK are becoming increasingly concerned about the roles undertaken by PAs who've done two years' postgrad study.
UK doctors are becoming increasingly concerned about the expanded role of physician associates, who have reported doing elements of neurosurgery, toe amputations and even surgically opening a patient.
Their concerns have been sparked by a coroner’s report into the case of a London woman, Emily Chesterton, who saw the same physician associate (PA) twice with breathlessness and calf pain.
The 30-year-old thought she was seeing a GP and was misdiagnosed as having a sprain, long COVID and anxiety.
Shortly before her death in November 2022, the PA prescribed propranolol.
