Pharmacist are a threat to physicians as we move toward value based care. All healthcare workers are a threat to physicians as we move toward Patient Centered Medical Homes and Accountable Care Organizations as we practice team based care and practice at the top of our license. These models are occurring in other countries such as the UK and basically a variety of healthcare workers are finding jobs except general practice physicians. they are being left unemployed because when there is a team to take on tasks that they once did you need less of them.
Articles from the telegraph UK:
Third of chemists have no permanent pharmacist thanks to recruitment for GP practices
‘Chronic shortage’, which industry bosses say is driving up costs for taxpayer, threatens to derail NHS recovery plans
www.telegraph.co.uk
Patient safety at risk as pharmacists replace GPs, doctors warn
Family doctors say mistakes are being made by less qualified staff who diagnose and treat patients with conditions they are not trained in
Family doctors say mistakes are being made by less qualified staff who diagnose and treat patients with conditions they are not trained in
www.telegraph.co.uk
Majority of NHS GP surgery appointments now do not involve family doctors
Doctors have criticized scheme that fills staffing gaps with thousands of paramedics and physician associates
Doctors have criticised scheme that fills staffing gaps with thousands of paramedics and physician associates
www.telegraph.co.uk
HIGHLIGHT FROM ARTICLE:
Many GPs ‘effectively unemployed’
Physician associates also cannot prescribe, meaning that GPs need to step in if medication is required.
NHS England said that it has now
hired an extra 31,000 front-line staff other than GPs to work in practices since 2019, against a target to recruit around 26,000 such workers.
The central scheme – called the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme (ARRS) – means GP practices do not have to pay the wages of such workers, which are paid by NHS England.
It brings the total in such roles in England to 42,000 – dwarfing the number of family doctors, which stands at about 27,000.
In 2019, the Government promised to increase GP numbers by 6,000 by 2024.
Since then numbers of full-time equivalents have fallen by about 900.
GPs available for temporary work in general practice said that their work was now drying up, despite thousands of vacancies for family doctors, because surgeries preferred to deploy ARRS workers that cost them nothing.
A GP in Yorkshire told the Telegraph: “It’s a pot of money from NHS England that GP partners are being told you can use to hire any healthcare staff that are not GPs.
“There are hundreds if not thousands of GPs out there who are effectively unemployed. A practice I worked at for nine, 10 years says they don’t need me anymore, they’ve hired a physician associate and two pharmacists.
“We keep hearing that there is a shortage of GPs, but it’s just not true. There are no vacancies. There is just one in my area, and I’m not alone, there are hundreds of my colleagues just sat at home twiddling their thumbs.
www.ama-assn.org
www.nursinginpractice.com
qni.org.uk
