A social media post from the RACP has stirred up discourse about the potential use of physician associates as a fix for workforce shortages.
A recent post on X (formerly Twitter) from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) has reopened discussion about the potential of physician assistants (PAs) on Australian shores.
The post itself called for expressions of interests for RACP fellows to join a PA working group.
This discourse has been marred with discontent among doctors, especially in the wake of numerous controversies in the UK regarding the medical role.
A key takeaway from the UK controversies was that patients tended to be confused about the actual roles and responsibilities of PAs.
There were talks in January from Queensland Health regarding the state implementation of PAs to alleviate workforce shortages.
This was met with backlash, with doctors citing the failures of the UK’s implementation. This has stunted the proposal’s progression.
Reactions to the RACP post have also reflected similar sentiments, with X users also pointing to the need for reform in other areas of health as a larger priority.
Probably no role at all. Instead, reduce administrative burden on doctors in the first place. Target the cause, don't make a new solution.
— Evan (@EvanDownUnder) June 16, 2025
Please explain to me, in simple language, why Advanced Trainees are coming out of training, and can't get jobs. Have you contacted every AT that's finished their training, to see if they want a job?
— Wattle the day bring From the River to the Sea. (@NotSoTravelled) June 17, 2025
The RACP, for its part, also expressed concerns with the model.
College president Professor Jennifer Martin told TMR that the introduction of PAs could hinder the development of effective multidisciplinary care in general practice.
“We do know that the more people in a medical workflow, the higher risk there is for errors, because not everything from an interaction is handed over from one person to another,” she said.
“There’s often not clear role delineation.
“I’ll say it’s potentially a remedy for some small parts of medical care if they can be properly integrated and supervised.
“But there’s still a lot of risk even when they’re properly integrated and supervised, because you’re interrupting the usual patient flow.”
The AMA also expressed concern with how the UK struggled to maintain a consistent scope of practice, which flowed on to ineffective patient care.
“I think it’s important to highlight that we don’t have an existing scope or training pathway or regulation around physicians Associates,” AMA president Dr Danielle McMullen told The Medical Republic.
“We only have a very, very small number of them working here in the country.
“If there was a workforce they would need to be recruited from overseas, there wouldn’t be a clear pathway of assessment of their skills or experience.
Related
“We do have a concern about the risk to patient safety depending on the roles that they could or would play.”
It was the AMA’s position that attempting to introduce PAs would be a distraction from addressing the systemic causes of the shortage.
“We recognise we do have shortages of doctors, but the answer is not to introduce a less skilled workforce for high-risk roles such as medical care,” Dr McMullen told TMR.
“Our focus really is squarely on improving the training and supports for medical practitioners to get improve our rural and regional training so that we can get more doctors out to where we need them.
“We do think there needs to be an independent health workforce agency to look at what is our broad health workforce looking like at the moment, and what is the needs of the community into the future.”
