Professor Gillian Leng, President of the Royal Society of Medicine was asked to carry out an independent review into the role of physician and anaesthetic associates.

She sits down with Kamran Abbasi, editor in chief of The BMJ, to discuss her findings. In the UK, the rollout of physician associates, NHS staff who took on some of the tasks of doctors, has been both haphazard and controversial.

Originally copied from similar roles in the U.S., British PAs were introduced in the early 2000s. The level of clinical responsibility they were asked to take on began to vary around the country, driven mostly by the workforce needs of individual Trusts.

The lack of clarity about their roles lead to disquiet with doctors, worry for patients, and an increasingly toxic debate on social media.