Judicial ruling on GMC describing assistants as 'medical professionals' could go to Court of Appeal

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By Daniel Pye

A judge has granted permission for the British Medical Association to appeal a High Court ruling on describing physician assistants as “medical professionals”.

Writing to the General Medical Council, BMA council chair Dr Tom Dolphin asked the regulator “not to use this inappropriate umbrella term to describe doctors and non-doctors,” before “further public funds are spent by the GMC fighting this appeal”.

On Monday Lord Justice Antony Zacaroli granted the BMA permission to appeal the ruling of a case it lost in April. The BMA’s case challenged the GMC over the use of the term.

Dr Dolphin’s letter was addressed to GMC chair Dame Carrie MacEwen and chief executive and registrar Charlie Massey.

He wrote that Justice Zacaroli had told the BMA its grounds of appeal had “a real prospect of success” and “raise an important point of principle which, having regard to public safety issues, provides a compelling reason for the Court of Appeal to hear the appeal”.

A GMC spokesperson said: “We note the BMA has been given permission from the Court of Appeal to appeal one aspect of their recent unsuccessful judicial review claim. This appeal relates to one aspect of terminology to cover our registrant groups.

“A hearing will be listed in due course.”

Dr Dolphin’s letter also stated that Professor Gillian Leng’s independent review of the physician associate and anaesthesia associate roles, published in July, had “laid bare the catastrophic failure in NHS leadership over many years, that has put patients at risk”.

“These failures also extend to flawed decisions by the GMC, which were made despite robust and justified opposition from the medical profession,” he added.

Dr Dolphin pointed to one of the review’s recommendations that regulation of assistants must “reflect their roles in the system and underpin their different and distinct roles”.

The GMC’s decision to use Good Medical Practice (GMP) was a “clear error that must now be rectified,” Dr Dolphin said.

“Blurring the lines between doctors and non-doctors, as identified by Professor Leng, is a basic patient safety matter”.

He drew upon a BMA survey published earlier this year, which found that 78.7% of nearly 15,000 respondents agreed [GMP] should only “set out the principles, values and standards of professional behaviour expected of doctors and not any other profession.

“We call again on the GMC to retain [GMP] as the overarching professional standards document for doctors only,” he stated.

It called on the council to adopt the same “rapid” change of name that has taken place across the NHS in England since the review. Professor Leng recommended that physician associates should be called physician assistants and anaesthesia associates be renamed as physician assistants in anaesthesia.

He also called for urgent updates to its generic and shared learning outcomes document following Professor Leng’s recommendations on assistant curricula.

After the review was published Massey said: “The findings of the review will be pivotal to how we work with others and continue to improve our regulatory practices. We look forward to working on the aspects of the report that relate to the GMC and with others where there is a shared responsibility to deliver change.”

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