NHS seeks more homeopaths
Degrees in homoeopathy, computer science, English literature and human resources are being accepted as entry qualifications to train to become a physician associate, the Daily Telegraph can reveal.
The NHS is rolling out a mass expansion in the use of such workers, despite concerns that patients are being put at risk by workers with insufficient training.
And not just insufficient but QUACK. No one with a degree in homeopathy should be anywhere near the NHS.
The figures for 2021 to 2023 show Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge accepted two students with degrees in homoeopathic medicine, while Bournemouth University accepted degrees in anthropology, nutrition and computer systems engineering.
There’s no such thing as “homeopathic medicine.” Homeopathy is dilution, not medicine. Dilution is not a form of medicine.
Physician associates are supposed to share some of the duties performed by doctors, including taking medical histories, examining patients, making diagnoses and analysing test results. However, they are supposed to work under the supervision of a doctor at all times. In recent years, there has been growing concern that the workers are being used to do tasks which require a fully qualified doctor.
The concerns have deepened since the death of Emily Chesterton, 30, from Salford, who died after two appointments with a physician associate who
mshe believed was a GP. Ms Chesterton consulted the Vale Practice surgery in north London on October 31, 2022. Her symptoms included calf pain, a swollen and hot leg, shortness of breath and she was finding it increasingly difficult to walk.The young actress believed she had been seen by a GP – but instead, a physician associate prescribed her propranolol medication for anxiety.
Seriously? I have no medical training whatsoever but if I had those symptoms I would think I had a dangerous raging infection and needed to get to the emergency room.
My understanding is that substances and aqueous soluttions of them are held by practitioners of homeopathy to have their therapeutic potency increased by dilution, contrary to everything taught in chemistry, biochemistry and pharmacy since the days of the alchemists. Alchemy in turn suggests to my mind that the time of these homeopathetics would likely be better spent searching for the Elixir of Youth, or for the Philosopher’s Stone, one touch of which will turn base lead into pure gold. Literally happens, because people pay good money for the services of these homeoquacks.
Where any innocent simpleton has a $$$$ pile, there’s surely a way.to relieve him or her of it.
Homeopathic Medicine.
Gender-Affirming Healthcare.
Creationist Science.
Choking Play.
Transgender Women.
The second half of those terms shouldn’t fool anybody.
Propanolol was obviously wrong. Maybe a statistically negligible quantity of arsenic would have done the job.
MItchell and Webb:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMGIbOGu8q0
Good lord… I mean, I might trust a nutritionist with additional training to take a basic medical history. But not real doctoring. And a homeopathic quack? I always thought Britain was supposed to be clearer-minded than the US, but… blech.
FYI: any reasonable MD would have considered the symptoms and signs you presented as being DVT and pulmonary embolism until proven otherwise.
As opposed to a raging infection. Good thing I’m not a “physician associate”!
Now that I think about it, that’s actually a very sly and misleading and thus dangerous label for what they’re talking about.
I wonder why they’re not called “nurses.” I wonder if they get more training or less.
Pliny, that is what I was thinking, though I have known a few cases of cellulitis that presented the same way. Glad to have an actual doctor ring in on that!
There are Physician Assistants (or Physician Associates) in the US; I’ve been seen by such people at various times in my life. They are a useful addition to medical staffing, requiring much less training than doctors but with more authority (e.g. prescriptions) than nurses.
The American Academy of Physician Associates provides a helpful What is a PA? page. PAs are educated at a master’s degree level.
Inklast, severe cellulitis is certainly within the differential, but DVT/PE would typically be evaluated first because of breadth of symptoms present that are consistent with that Dx and the ‘Danger Will Robinson’ response it generates…
This topic is a deep well. The NHS, like the US health system has a huge shortfall of trained clinicians. It will never be solved through conventional means or expanding MD training programs. Access is in crisis. And COVID broke the system. Some ambulatory care model using health coaches, medical assistants, or medical associates is inevitable. Many of us in the field accept that. The problem that plagues these systems is the same one that haunts RN and MD level services – you only know what you know. Non-MDs have been used successfully to gather data or conduct interviews in advance of an MD or other QHP but the fear is always, “did they ask all the right questions?”
I believe the answer is in training large numbers of people in motivational interviewing and equipping them with vetted AI systems that guide their interviews at a level comparable with an MD level assessment. That way the MD upstream receives an actionable data set and potentially dangerous presentations can be identified and properly triaged.
Yeah, been through that recently. My husband has a history of DVT, and when he presented with symptoms, they evaluated him quite carefully before concluding it was cellulitis. I was glad of that, and the physician’s assistant who wasn’t sure who sent him to the hospital for further testing.
That’s the thing with the AI diagnosing, too. His cellulitis didn’t look quite characteristic to the PA; an AI might have diagnosed him with DVT, especially with his history. Having a human person, and one who is well trained, was so crucial here. I don’t know about the UK, but PAs in the US are usually quite well trained.
In NZ we call these Nurse Practitioners.
https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/nursing/nurses-new-zealand/nurse-practitioners-new-zealand
We have Nurse Practitioners here too.
IN NZ there is no current training for physician associates. They don’t have prescribing authority in NZ currently – that has to be done by a supervising Dr. From what I can see on the professional association, there are currently only 50 in NZ, all trained in the US, Canada, or the UK. It’ll be interesting to see if the idea catches on here. On the one hand our health system is overwhelmed – just like elsewhere. On the other, we can point at the already established nurse practitioners with a strong local system for training and an existing legal framework and ask why and how altering the framework is useful.