Regulations of Medical Associate Professions in the UK

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Medical Associate Professions

Perioperative Care

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) would like to raise concerns surrounding the recommendations in a recent government consultation document on the Regulation of Medical Associate Professions in the UK.  The College is in agreement with the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine that surgical care practitioners (SCP), physician assistants in anaesthesia and acute critical care practitioners should also move towards statutory regulation.

The SCP is a practitioner, invariably from a nursing background, performing surgical intervention and   pre and postoperative care under the supervision of the consultant surgeon, but this can equate to a significant proportion of independent practice. These practitioners now work to a model of care that requires quality assured education and training, assessment of competence and appraisals, as well as a commitment to standards through CPD.

The above are criteria required for statutory regulation and through the College’s Faculty of Perioperative Care (FPC). We support these surgical practitioners as members of the extended surgical team. It is vitally important that SCPs undergo statutory regulation and we are disappointed that this has not been fully supported in the regulation document recently issued for consultation.

We wish to ask for support toward statutory regulation for these SCPs.

ENDS

About The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

RCSEd (www.rcsed.ac.uk) was first incorporated in as the Barber Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1505, and is one of the oldest surgical corporations in the world with memberships approaching 25,000 over 100 countries worldwide. The College promotes the highest standards of surgical and dental practice through its examinations, and is also increasingly involved in the provision of surgical training and education, offering the UK’s only Faculty of Surgical Trainers, open to all those with an interest in surgical training regardless of College affiliation. RCSEd’s commercial enterprises offer conferencing and event facilities at The Playfair Building, Symposium Hall and Quincentenary Hall, and runs the Ten Hill Place Hotel.

Find RCSEd on Twitter www.twitter.com/RCSEd and on Facebook www.facebook.com/rcsed

The College is based at Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, EH8 9DW and can be reached on (0)131 527 1600 or mail@rcsed.ac.uk.

For communications and media enquiries contact the Communications Department on (0)131 527 1594 or comms@rcsed.ac.uk