Support for PAs or AAs
Going through a fitness to practise assessment can be a stressful experience and you may wish to talk to someone in confidence about how you’re feeling.
We’ve set up the PA and AA Support Service, which is independent of the GMC. It’s a telephone-based service that offers free and confidential support to PA and AA registrants who are going through a fitness to practise assessment.
What can the service offer?
The PA and AA Support Service:
- offers emotional support and advice during what we know can be a challenging time
- is available for the duration of your fitness to practise assessment
- pairs you with a specially trained member of their team who will understand what a GMC assessment involves
- is confidential – your discussions will not be shared with the GMC
- continues to provide support if your case is referred for a hearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service including offering someone to attend the hearing with you for up to two days.
How do I contact the service?
You can contact the PA and AA Support Service Monday-Friday between 8am and 6pm on 0300 373 2802. Calls are charged at local rates. If you need support outside of these hours, call the same number and you’ll be directed to their 24/7 team who can provide immediate support. This is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There’s no obligation to use the service, you can simply reach out to them if you’d like to learn more. If you want to use the service, the team will guide you through the process.
How do I find out more about this support?
The PA and AA Support Service is provided by Victim Support, a well-established charity with expertise supporting individuals through stressful and emotional experiences. It also specialises in helping people navigate formal and regulatory proceedings. Find out more about what the service offers and how you can access support.
Impact of a health condition on fitness to practise
Having a health condition is not a departure from the professional standards expected of PAs or AAs. But where the impact of a health condition is such that it can pose a risk to patients, PAs and AAs are expected to take steps to manage that risk.
Where those steps have not been taken, the impact of a health condition on the PA or AA’s ability to provide to care sufficient standard will need to be considered as part of assessing the seriousness of the concern.
The legislation for PAs and AAs does not include a separate ground for action for health and in this respect is different to the legislation for doctors where health is a separate head of impairment. The separate head of impairment for health in the legislation for doctors enables us to manage cases where a risk to the public arises solely or partly from the impact of a health condition differently to cases where health is not a factor.
It has supported us to develop a highly sensitive approach that has the strong support of groups who represent doctors.
We will try to take an approach under the legislation for PAs and AAs in cases involving health that is as close to that for doctors as possible. We continue to develop our thinking on this, but there will be some areas where, due to the legislation, we will not be able to take the same approach.
