Helen Salisbury: Physician assistant roles in general practice after the Leng review

After some delay, Gillian Leng’s report on physician associates (PAs) and anaesthesia associates (AAs) in the NHS was published on 16 July.1 Her remit was to look at the safety and effectiveness of these roles. One significant stumbling block was the lack of good research evidence, and as most studies were far too small to be generalisable, her conclusions are mostly that we don’t know.