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.