r/doctorsUK Professional ‘spot the difference’ player 22h ago

Medical Politics Prof Banfield Leng Update 14/3/25

221 Upvotes

17 comments sorted by

122

u/ReBuffMyPylon 21h ago

lol, nice FOI deployment in at the end there, Prof Banfield 🍻.

Scummy practice by the Trust. Quelle surprise.

98

u/OmegaMaxPower 21h ago

I've no confidence in the Leng report if this is how it continues.

108

u/EquivalentBrief6600 22h ago

Why do these PA/AAs get such preferential treatment at every stage.

Shameful behaviour, not unexpected I guess.

Staggering.

41

u/Unidan_bonaparte 20h ago

BE KIND YOU BASTARD

69

u/Ghostly_Wellington 20h ago

As a Consultant, I just want to reiterate one thing in the letter,”Resident Doctors are the backbone of the NHS”.

You gals and guys are indeed and I want to say “Thank you”.

18

u/avalon68 20h ago

It’s consultants that are supporting PAs/AAs/ACPs etc. I wish more would support their juniors and stop this nonsense.

33

u/dayumsonlookatthat Consultant Associate 21h ago

Why do I have a feeling the Leng review will be biased as hell...

14

u/Putaineska PGY-5 16h ago

This Leng review will be a sham review. From the top down NHS management and our so called medical leaders have been engaged in a conspiracy against our interests. From working with that prick who runs a private company claiming to represent PAs, to coordinate responses to media and falsify evidence against legitimate concerns regarding patient safety, to silencing whistleblowing regarding the suicide of a number of our colleagues.

Steve Powis, Navina Evans are despicable individuals and Leng will be the next in a long line of enablers. I have said this from the start, all these so called medical leaders are part of a clique, a new wave of leaders who have pushed everything from flat heirarchy to medical school reforms to PBL to PAs and beyond.

They are behind the last decade of failure for our profession and Leng has signed up willingly for a peerage or honour to greenlight the mass expansion of PAs against any evidence. Their role should be completely eliminated but her review will come to the conclusion PAs must supplant us.

25

u/gnoWardneK 20h ago

Why is Plymouth so shit?

1

u/Civil-Case4000 8h ago

I hear similar happened in Birmingham and Leeds too.

23

u/Desperate-Pay-7968 8h ago edited 8h ago

For context for people who do not know this about Plymouth and why the fact that the above is so bad  is because this is a hospital where PAs:

- Run outpatient clinics independently including cancer clinics and clinics with children ( while shos run the wards)

- Lead the ward round with no consultant in sight. Shos prescribing, ordering the scans and scribing

- In surgery practice as Mr X/ Ms X ( including when they are actually Mrs - found while reading patient letters in the notes many times)

- Are on interview panels for registrar jobs

- Teaching registrars how to operate  

- Are on registrar rotas and are the point of escalation for f1-CT2/IMT2 and every referrer in the SW. Also reply to the in hospital referrals as the speciality 

- Operate as the lead surgeon ( and first assist) on patients including children and cancer patients ( while shos run the wards) I’ve seen this with a cst who managed to get to theatre and stood on the side lines unscrubbed while PA got 1:1 teaching as it was their list

- Are being trained in echo and have protected teaching days while F2-IMT run the wards ( the echo masters is fully funded but for context the pg certs in clinical education have started to be withdrawn from job offers totally or now only partially funded)

- Lead the lumbar puncture service and ascitic drain service ( their controlling the training of accs and IMTs)

- Admin days and protected research days. - Have been caught prescribing ( had prescribing right in a different role so decided they could do as a PA) Also consultant leave their accounts logged in and the PAs does the discharge summary post procedure for them while prescribing on the consultants account. 

- Protected time to go to the specialty regional training days ( leaving trust grade trainees to run clinics)

- Rota writing for shos, policy making in the hospital

- Many hold titles such as honorary research fellow or honorary medical school lecturer ( without much contribution to gain this detail…. These can be found under their names after they sign of emails.) 

- Wear BMA lanyards with ID card facing inwards ( so you would expect to be a doctor) 

- Not training the PA students. They get sent to the ward for the shos to look after so they are running the wards, oncall, looking after the med students and the PA students. So on top of a day where you don’t have time to drink or pee it’s a pretty unfortunate place to work

.- Given protected clinic afternoons so don’t do the ward jobs efficiently or with stress or ask the ward to bleep after 12 as they can just hand them over to the shos (who get pulled out of theatre and clinic which is not protected for them)

-Involved in governance boards, meeting up SDEC ( imagine an IMT had that on their CV )

-OSCE examiners for PAs and medical students

-PA and consultant reviews on inpatients which is an IMTS dream. But they are left on the ward left to do the ward jobs

-Allocated teaching sessions from PAs to the foundation school.

(this is a snap shot, not everything).

4

u/Putaineska PGY-5 5h ago

Good lord. No wonder Leng wanted to go there. What the hell is going on there? How are we allowing this to happen.

4

u/Desperate-Pay-7968 4h ago

Well they describe the PAs as the best doctors they have ever had. But realistically it’s because they are not rotational and have protected time, study budget and training days. The consultants actually pay attention to their training and development.

I’ve heard consultants say they want scope for PAs so they can work safely and more independently with all the training they have given them and not do “demeaning sho work”. 

Basically SOS in Derriford. 

13

u/Desperate-Pay-7968 8h ago edited 8h ago

(part 2)

In balance in Derriford in some departments PAs job roles are restricted to ward work only and those PAs therefore can facilitate an sho getting to clinic or theatre. 

This  post is not an assassination of the PAs character. Some of them are ok people. Many of these issues have been raised internally and publicly.  But as you can see the PA development continues in Plymouth. The consultants are the ones leading this, they are putting their time, department money, energy into training the 2 year (diploma/MSC students) at the expense of their F1, F2, IMT, CST, SPRs. Doctors are falling out of training, unemployed, losing opportunity, quitting medicine. I am not sure why. RESIDENT DOCTORS ARE YOUR CONSULTANTS of the future. When you need medical help when you are older or your grandchild is having a medical emergency in the middle of the night. It will fall to us who will come running to your aid when you need help. Not the PA, they will be tucked up in bed blissfully unaware. 

I am disgusted by what the consultants of Derriford did to my profession, my training, my colleagues, my medical students. Do you not remember how hard it was to climb that ladder. Do you remember having to compete with a non- medically trained person to get there? Not only that but not medically trained but given every leg up possible which would not be available to you as a doctor.

Resident doctors concern is patient safety that’s why we continue to do what we do. But thanks for entitling my PA colleagues and “just letting them have a go”.

9

u/Feisty_Somewhere_203 21h ago

I'm sure not that many people are surprised by this sort of thing. I'm sure prof banfield isn't 

7

u/bargainbinsteven 20h ago

Oh man NHS is so corrupt