An open letter to senior stakeholders within the NHS and wider government relating to the long-term workforce plan (LTWFP) regarding the results of an impact assessment study on the MAP workforce and the precipitating causes.
Dear colleagues,
We write to you on behalf of United Medical Associate Professionals (UMAPs). We are aware that this letter is likely to result in the victimisation of individuals working for our association. Nevertheless, the contents must be shared.
In November last year, after 11 months of witnessing the reputation of our colleagues diminish through negative and untrue media reports, UMAPs was formed. We started our association as a small group of Medical Associate Professionals (MAPs) but now we write today representing over 400 members of the workforce.
At first, we aimed only to create a safe space for MAPs, to raise positive awareness for our role, and to challenge and correct such media reports through rebuttals. In December, it became evident these articles were not organic, but an organised attempt to defame the profession, the motivation of which was unclear. The intelligence that we had gathered until this point, suggested that stakeholders did not fully comprehend the depth of the movement against the profession. The media became so extreme we decided to initiate an investigation into the factors involved in the movement against MAPs.
Simultaneously, we determined it was necessary to assess the impact this hostile environment has had on our members and colleagues.
Preliminary findings of the “Impact Assessment for the current hostile environment on the MAP workforce”
A survey was sent out to MAPS to analyse the impact this hostile environment was having on their personal mental health and their workplace environments. We felt it was important to give those who didn’t have representation a chance to help organisations such as ours, and yours, to understand the impact.
The results of which are as follows:
Our survey, in the first week of requesting submission, collected 437 submissions, reaching the threshold to make it statistically significant and relevant. There were 413 validated responses to our survey. This represents over 10% of the active PA workforce.
The following is a numerical breakdown of the responses reporting changes since the smear campaign against MAPs started;
- 303 respondents (74%) report a negative change in their workplace
- 314 respondents (76%) report the current environment is negatively affecting their home life
- 226 respondents (55%) report a negative change in the way their colleagues treat them
- 123 respondents (30%) report a negative change in the way patients have been treating them
- 134 respondents (33%) report some organisational negative changes
- 93 respondents (23%) report a negative effect on the treatment of patients
- 384 respondents (93%) report a negative effect on their mental health
- 334 respondents (81%) report considering leaving the role completely
Many of our AA members have submitted responses showing equally, and in some cases, more concerning results. We will be publishing these results when we are confident that we can validate the responses.
The above results show a consistent theme of negative changes to both the work and home environment of MAPs. The effect on mental health is the most alarming with 93% of surveyed being affected. The vast majority took time to write in the free text telling their personal stories of victimisation, the contents of which make for sober reading. For no reason other than being a PA, our members have been defamed on social media, they’ve been falsely and publicly accused of crimes, they’ve been told to commit suicide, and some even received personal death threats. We were saddened, but not surprised, to read some of our colleagues were driven to require therapy and medical assistance, taking time off work.
PAs reported they were once proud to be part of the medical team, they enjoyed their work and found it to be greatly rewarding. Now, 81% have been forced to consider new career paths. The results are catastrophic and show the complete decimation of the moral and mental health of our workforce. We believe that, within months, we will be seeing a mortality alongside PAs leaving the workforce on mass.
Meanwhile, the FPA, actively being managed by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), has seemingly restricted communications leading to a lack of support. No organisation has freely and actively advocated on behalf of MAPs in the UK, in the required manner to dispel the defamatory narrative being established by our minority opposers.
Our workforce was generated by asking trained scientists, and other professional healthcare workers to transfer to practise as a Physician Associate after a 2-year conversion course under the supervision of Consultants and General Practitioners. MAPs have excelled across all aspects of the NHS and have been found, in peer-reviewed evidence, to be safe and effective. Our members have continued to work through this challenging time, they have remained professional and succeeded in refraining from engaging in abusive retaliatory behaviour and bringing the medical establishment into disrepute. They have been left defenceless as behaviours continue to escalate.
This overt case of bullying and harassment, being orchestrated by a minority of our supposed colleagues, would likely not have had the profound effect it has, if there had been sufficient support from the organisations we looked to for guidance, encouragement, and support. We are calling upon all stakeholders to now step up into their leadership roles and address this catastrophic mental health crisis within the workforce we represent, and to come together to end the organised hate campaign against MAPs, and any medical professional that stands alongside us.
Over the last year, the UK medical establishment has witnessed and stood by while its members were publicly bullied and harassed, simply for existing. Medical associate professionals stood alongside the NHS colleagues for 20 years, during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to support our colleagues and patients throughout the doctor’s strikes. We have suffered a nationally orchestrated smear campaign, damaging our profession and threatening our livelihood, and our member’s wellbeing. We appreciate, where genuine, patients’ safety concerns have been raised and we will continue to work with stakeholders in calling for no further delays to MAP regulation.
As you are a stakeholder in the long-term workforce plan, we ask for an urgent inquiry into the acute hostile developments within the medical infrastructure of the United Kingdom.
We ask for a hold on all negatively impacting rollbacks of workforces being carried out by colleges until this inquiry is complete.
We further ask that any survey, investigation, or scope of practice for MAPs should be undertaken by a neutral body, and it should be done on terms agreed by the NHS, FPA, and UMAPs. We welcome support and advice from other stakeholders who want to engage in good faith.
We ask all stakeholders who work alongside the MAP workforce to actively engage with us to put in place protections against further malicious activities against our members.
Yours Faithfully,
UMAPs
