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Dear Susan Sollazzi,

Your information request – IR1-4515515022

Thank you for your Email below dated 22^nd July 2024.

How we will consider your request

We are going to consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond, but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can.

Your request will be allocated to a member of the team. If you have any
queries please email [1][GMC request email].

Kind regards,

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

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Dear Susan Sollazzi,

Your information request – IR1-4515515022

Thank you for your email dated 22 July 2024. I have considered your
request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA).

You have asked “how many doctors have been referred to GMC for
investigation due to expressing concern over the role out of physician
associates (PAs) and anaesthetist associates (AAs)”.

We carried out a search based on the following key words to identify any
complaints that would fall under the scope of your request:

“physician associate”; “anaesthetist associate”; “(pa)”; “(aa)”; “(p.a)”;
“(a.a)”; “(pas)”; “(aas)”; “(aa's)”; “(pa's)”; “pa's”; “aa's”; “pas”;
“aas”; “aa”; “pa”; “p.a”; “a.a”; “a.a's”; “p.a's”; “anaesthesia
associates”; “physicians associates”;

“physican associate”

Between 1 January 2023 to 31 July 2024, we identified 22 complaints
relating to 17 individual identifiable doctors and 4 unidentified doctors
where allegations concerned doctors expressing some form of criticism
towards the role of PAs and/or AAs. I have excluded any complaints that
concern behaviour within a clinical (work) environment or relate to
behaviours towards a specific PA or AA in a personal capacity.

Please note that a complaint may refer to multiple doctors and one doctor
may have more than one complaint against them.

Please see the below table for a breakdown by month of the complaints
received since January 2023:

┌─────────┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬────┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬───┬─────┐
│Breakdown│Jan│Feb│Mar│Apr│May│Jun│Jul│Aug│Sept│Oct│Nov│Dec│Jan│Feb│Mar│Apr│May│Jun│Jul│Grand│
│by Month │ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 23│ 24│ 24│ 24│ 24│ 24│ 24│ 24│Total│
├─────────┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼────┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼───┼─────┤
│Total │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 3│ 4│ 4│ │ 5│ 2│ 3│ │ │ 1│ │ 22│
└─────────┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴────┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴───┴─────┘

The above complaints were all closed at triage, which means that they did
not meet our thresholds for a full investigation. If we receive a
complaint about a doctor, we have a legal duty to consider whether those
concerns meet the threshold for investigation. We make our decisions based
on the specific facts of the case, using the professional standards that
apply to all doctors registered to practise in the UK, to determine
whether patient safety, or the public’s confidence in the medical
profession, is at risk.

Who to contact
                                                                             

If you would like to appeal this decision please set out your reasons in
writing to [1][GMC request email]. Please note that we will only usually
consider appeals received within 40 working days of our response. You can
also appeal to the [2]Information Commissioner, the regulator of the FOIA
and DPA.

Kind regards,

Henna Janghir

Information Access Officer

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

Email: [3][email address]

Tel: 0161 923 6710

Website: [4]www.gmc-uk.org

From: FOI
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2024 3:09 PM
To: 'Susan Sollazzi' <[FOI #1149181 email]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - Doctor referrals for
investigation

Dear Susan Sollazzi,

Your information request – IR1-4515515022

Thank you for your Email below dated 22^nd July 2024.

How we will consider your request

We are going to consider your request under the Freedom of Information Act
2000 (FOIA). The FOIA gives us 20 working days to respond, but we’ll come
back to you as soon as we can.

Your request will be allocated to a member of the team. If you have any
queries please email [5][GMC request email].

Kind regards,

Information Access Team

General Medical Council

3 Hardman Street

Manchester

M3 3AW

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