Update – Regulation of Anaesthesia Associates

The Association recently met with colleagues from the General Medical Council to discuss the next steps towards the statutory regulation of Anaesthesia Associates and Physician Associates. We were very excited to meet the GMC to formally start the process towards statutory regulation. It has been a long road to reach this phase! We are delighted to have arrived at this stage and the process of setting up a statutory register will only be the beginning of a longer development programme.

The GMC and the AAA see the process as very much collaborative, working with all key stakeholders over the next 12 months and beyond. In working closely with partners, including patient/lay representatives, we can ensure a regulatory system, that not only maintains patient safety and trust in the profession, but also works effectively for the profession itself.

There will be many areas of the regulatory framework that apply equally to AAs and PAs, however, these are distinct groups and we expect this distinctiveness to continue.

The GMC are as enthusiastic as AAs and PAs to progress this work at pace. The Department of Health and Social Care have provided an indicative time frame of 18-24 months for the legislatory framework to be laid, to legally allow the GMC to regulate AAs/PAs. The first step in this required amendment will involve the development of draft legislation, which, must then be publicly consulted upon for 3 months.

The GMC will be consulting a wide range of stakeholders, which will of course include AAs themselves. We expect a senior GMC representative to attend the AAA conference in Coventry, 4-5th June 2020.  We look forward to seeing many of you then with further updates.