Physician associates

I read the articles about physician associates (PAs) with great sadness. PAs are being sold to us as the answer to the ever-growing pressure of workload and demands that GPs are facing, and also as a substitute for the drop in numbers entering general practice.

Even extremely well-trained and highly experienced nurse practitioners are stressed and find themselves taking on too many responsibilities. However, when they are faced with tricky or difficult decisions they naturally refer this back to the GP and the responsibility once again falls back to the GP.

I feel that PAs will be an added confusion for patients who want to see fully-qualified doctors who take the responsibility for their care. Even now quite a few patients think that our nurse practitioner is a female doctor. The introduction of physician associates is short sighted and simply a gap-filler: in the long run we need to focus on more trained GPs instead.

• © British Journal of General Practice 2015