Apology after job ad said physician associates would ‘clinically supervise junior doctors’

Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. Photo: NHS Highland

By Angela Walker

NHS Highland has apologised for an “error” in a job advertisement for a physician associate, which said the role would include supervising members of the wider clinical team, including trainee doctors.

The advert for a PA role at Raigmore Hospital was placed online on 14 December. The mistake was flagged up on the social media website X by a concerned FY1 and viewed more than 280,000 times.

The original poster said: "Can someone at @NHSHighland please explain why PAs are now supervising doctors at Raigmore Hospital? Is this a joke?"

The job description attached to the advert states: “The PA will actively undertake clinical supervision of ward nursing staff, junior doctors and student PA’s to facilitate the development of clinical skills and practice.”

The PA is also shown as supervising clinicians in the organisational structure diagram.

The job description also states it was last updated in 2018, and Doctors.net.uk has since found a similar job description attached to a job advert in November 2021, which also states an associate role would supervise trainee doctors.