Judge rejects claim ‘activist doctors’ drove NHS crackdown on physician assistants
A lobby group for physician assistants will pay $63,000 in costs after a court dismissed its allegations that NHS England’s decision to restrict their scope was driven by “activist doctors”.
A short but scathing judgement by Justice Alistair MacDonald concluded that none of the 19 grounds argued by the Union of Medical Associate Professionals (UMAPs), which represents about 4000 physician assistants (PAs), justified a full hearing.
UMAPs had accused the UK Government and NHS England of breaching their legal duties by accepting the recommendations from the so-called Leng Review in 2025 to appease “non-safety-related grievances” from “activist resident doctors”.
The recommendations included banning PAs from seeing undifferentiated patients in most circumstances and changing their title from ‘physician associates’ to ‘physician assistants’.
