Solving the recruitment crisis in UK general practice: Time to consider physician assistants?

With large numbers of GPs due to retire by 2007, the recruitment and retention crisis in UK general practice is likely to get worse before it gets better. Urgent measures are now required. Policies such as offering doctors financial incentives to enter general practice or delay retirement, while increasing the number of medical school places, may, for a variety of reasons, be likely to enjoy only limited success. In this article, a more radical solution is proposed: the creation of an intermediate medical practitioner role, along the lines of the physician assistant in the USA. The establishment of such a role may go some way to resolving the workforce crisis that currently besets general practice and ensure that medical needs, especially in deprived areas, are adequately met. A number of specific occupational groups who may find the PA role attractive are identified. It is suggested that refugee doctors, unable to practise in the UK, may find PA training particularly attractive, especially if it could serve as a stepping-stone to GMC registration.