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The Surgical Team: Is it Time to Embrace Perioperative Practitioners?

19 October 2017 9:29am

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Perioperative practitioners are increasingly taking on care responsibilities previously carried out by the medical team, and, as the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is soon to hold its third annual conference, RCSEd Council Member and Faculty of Perioperative Care (FPC) Lead Charlie Auld says now could be the right moment for the surgical specialties to embrace this important addition to the workforce.

“RCSEd supports the whole surgical team and the role of perioperative practitioners because it is increasingly a key element in the health service providing safe patient care, working in partnership with the surgical team,” Charlie Auld explains.

The RCSEd Faculty of Perioperative Care is holding its annual conference in Birmingham on Saturday 4 November 2017, and the key debate will be around ‘The surgical team: are perioperative practitioners working towards a medical model of care?’.

“Physician associates are expanding rapidly in the UK across all disciplines and this important addition to the workforce needs to be embraced within the surgical specialties,” Charlie Auld says. “There are excellent examples of physician associates undertaking diagnostic procedures in addition to their role in surgical wards, outpatients and theatre.*

“That’s why we have extended an invitation to consultants and surgical trainees to this conference so that we can all benefit from hearing about “best case “examples of the wider surgical team working together to improve the patient’s experience.”

*RCSEd response to the Regulation of Medical Associate Professions in the UK government consultation

The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is concerned and disappointed that the government consultation has not recommended statutory regulation for surgical care practitioners (SCPs), despite support from the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine.

The full statement issued by RCSEd can be read here:  https://www.rcsed.ac.uk/news-public-affairs/news/2017/october/regulations-of-medical-associate-professions-in-the-uk