Last week, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) held its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to debate issues relating to the physician associate profession.
Fellows were invited to vote on five motions covering scope of practice, accountability, evaluation, the impact on training opportunities, and the pace and scale of roll-out. Voting closed yesterday (20 March). Given the importance of this ballot, the RCP has taken the decision to share the results immediately instead of on Monday 25 March as planned.
The results were:
- Motion 1 on scope of practice was passed with 96.9% of the vote
- Motion 2 on accountability was passed with 95.6% of the vote
- Motion 3 on evaluation was passed with 96.1% of the vote
- Motion 4 on training opportunities was passed with 95.9% of the vote
- Motion 5 on caution in pace and scale of roll-out was passed with 78.7% of the vote.
The turnout was 31.9%. The number of votes cast by RCP fellows was 4,398.
Regarding next steps, the RCP will now work closely with its Council, Board of Trustees and key stakeholders in response to this clear direction from the fellowship.