Physician associates not the answer to health system under pressure

A sign the Aotearoa New Zealand Health Minister envisages more medical specialists’ duties being performed by physician associates comes with risks, especially for Māori patients, doctors say.

On Saturday Minister Simeon Brown announced the Government would regulate physician associates – health professionals who are not doctors but perform some of the same functions.

There are currently around 50 practicing in Aotearoa New Zealand, all of whom are overseas-trained.

Dr Hamish McCay, Aotearoa NZ President at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP), said there were no tasks performed by physician associates that could not be performed by already-regulated health professions, for which there is local training.

“Physician associates are not the answer to a health system under pressure. We need to focus on growing Aotearoa New Zealand’s own health workforce” Dr McCay said.

“We have concerns about safety, cultural competency when working with Māori patients, and precious resources being diverted away from existing training programs and the supervision of the next generation of doctors.”

Dr McCay said it was also disappointing the announcement was made before the government had even finished a widely-publicised consultation entitled ‘Putting Patients First: Modernising health workforce regulation’.

RACP’s Māori Health Committee Chair, Dr Matt Wheeler, said it was likely that an increase in physician associates would see them deployed to the most under-resourced areas, including areas with a significant Māori population.

“Cultural safety is clinical safety and anyone providing care to Māori patients needs a strong cultural understanding of the multi-faceted issues we face in health and beyond,” Dr Wheeler said.

“Health workers without local qualifications will lack this, and we are concerned a shift towards more physician associates will further increase health inequity between Māori and non-Māori.

“The government would be better focusing on retaining locally trained medical personnel by improving workforce conditions.”