The academy, which represents 24 medical royal colleges, said there has been a growing campaign against their use “potentially fuelled by unsubstantiated claims of social media”.
Chair Dr Jeanette Dickson said: “We want an independent, evidence-based, rapid review to help us make a decision about how best to delineate their roles and where they might best fit into the system.
“What’s important is that we can objectively assess the data around safety, efficiency and cost effectiveness and make a judgement about what precise roles in healthcare may be suitable for them and what levels of responsibility they might be safely given based on the actual evidence.”
The academy said it was not its job to say how and who should set up the inquiry, but added it needed to be robust and independent in the way the ones by Lord Ara Darzi, into NHS performance, and Dr Hilary Cass, into gender care for children, were. They were set up by the government and NHS England respectively.
BMA leader Prof Philip Banfield said it was “troubling” that it had taken the academy so long to reach this point.
“We called for an inquiry six months ago. It is imperative the government acts to address the concerns.
“Until we can ensure PAs are working to a strict scope of practice we need the recruitment and expansion to be paused.”
But NHS England indicated there would be no review, pointing out it had produced updated guidance making clear what the role of PAs and AAs were.
“The NHS has always been clear about the role they play – they are not replacements for doctors, but support teams with specific tasks they are trained to do under supervision.”
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