Physician assistants

[Iceman]

Originally Posted by heed

i smell New Zealand coming....... oh yes. book my ticket.

I hear the weather & scenery is quite nice also.

(Seriously will Aus/NZ not be saturated with ex-pat Brit Doctors in a few years?)

[heed]

Oz and NZ have alot of UK expat docs youre right - but alot of them are on locum contracts. the way things are going in the NHS though, i can see Oz/NZ becoming more difficult youre right. Maybe South Africa....

As for Canada, if you are an international graduate and are non-canadian, then you need to sit the MCCEE, MCCQE(I) and MCCQE(II) exams. They are expensive, not renowned for being easy and you can only do the MCCQE(II) in Canada - so extra ££££. If you pass it all, you need to apply to the CARMS (like MTAS) and deal with a mountain of paperwork and visa stuff - then if you get through, you will need to work in a rural "non-desirable" post for a considerable time before you can even think of getting a good job in your desired specialty as you are always prioritised behind native Canadian applicants.

[DamianUK]

The problem is i talk about this situation to my peers and all i get back is..."it'll be ok" "it will all get sorted".
Heads in the sand...

There is 0% unemployment at F1 for UK grads, as long as you graduate you have to get an F1 post as it's part of your medical training (i.e. it's counted as part of medical school) before you are registered to practice.

Now last year there were 4000 who didn't get an St place last year and this year it could be 9000 if all the FTSTA posts are abolished.

[yazoo]

Or more!

Who knows how many will apply, incl. IMGs, and how many will make multiple applications. At least we will be having a CV-like component this time...

[orlando2007]

This is the madness that is the modern NHS
if you check out the following links medics be warned this could be your future These PAs are the thin end of the wedge I would urge the medical profession for themselves and for patient care to fight these PA posts tooth and nail.And on a cynical note I wonder how many graduate entry people will be sent info on PA training by St Georges if they fail to make the cut of in the Gamsat test as applications for PA training dont close till end of Nov after gamsat results are out

http://www.csp.org.uk/director/newsa...0D796&article=

http://www.csp.org.uk/director/newsa...dgraduates.cfm

[Anjoo]

Well according to this report Physician assistants seem to be working effectively and GP's are happy with their work:

http://www.hsmc.bham.ac.uk/publicati...l%20report.pdf

also had a look at what you need to apply for the course and it looks touch so can't imagine how tough the course will be, seems like its most of whats covered in med school but condensed into two years.

whether it be PA, HCA'S, NP'S, GP'S, the aim is one: Treat and care for patients.

Howdy

[Dr Noodle]

Do you really think so? I would have thought that saving money was pretty high on their agenda as well. For example, a HCA's wages is significantly lower than a nurse's wages. Well maybe in the UK they want to save money and use it for better needs. That would be nice.

[Rich' Trash]

I dont mean to sound nasty here and I'll sound like a twat but... why do doctors expect themselves to automatically be given a job? Its the only career that would expect this.. no one else does training and doesn't expect to have to compete to be employed.

Someone up there said there was 4000 doctors not progressing onto specialist training. Surely these are the worst 4000? The tiny minority (which I'm assuming 4000 is..) that just isnt good enough or competative enough to win a job.

[Dr Noodle]

Why not? The training is very expensive and very long. I don't think it's too much to expect a job after all that.

From what I've heard, though don't quote me on this cos I could be wrong, the MTAS system isn't the fairest so it isn't necessarily the 'worst' 4000 docs not progressing on to specialist training. Actually I'm not sure if MTAS has anything to do with that stage of training. Anyway, 4000 sounds like an awful lot for a 'tiny' minority?

[Spencer Wells]

There is a monopoly employer in the UK, it's not like we can just go and work for another company while doing the thing that we trained for 4-6 years for, at considerable expense. As for those people not getting the jobs, it actually seems that there are some incredibly good and well qualified people not getting them, it's not the worst 4,000.