Children's hospital used doctors' assistants instead of surgeons to fill rota gaps

Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) has been criticised by the NHS watchdog for using doctors' assistants to fill its surgical rota.

- REBECCA THOMAS

GOSH, one of the world's leading children's hospitals, had resorted to using physician associates, now called physician assistants (PAs), to fill gaps for registrars due to short staffing, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found during an inspection in October 2024.

In addition to concerns over the use of PAs to cover during times of short staffing, the CQC found that the trust also had a shortage of nurses trained to carry out tracheostomies, leaving only one trained nurse available to work during some shifts.

Widespread controversy over the use of physician associates by the NHS was subject to a national review earlier this year, following the death of Emily Chesterton in 2022. She died from a pulmonary embolism after being misdiagnosed twice by a PA, who she believed to be a doctor, at her GP surgery in north London.

Following the Leng review into the use of PAs, the government accepted the recommendations, which included that PAs should be renamed and only see patients in limited circumstances.