Daniel Harris, 49, from Devon, did not realise he was not seeing a doctor when he attended the appointments at his GP surgery in 2023 complaining of severe stomach pains.
Mr Harris only discovered he had been assessed by a PA when his partner looked them up online.
While PAs are not doctors, they are still healthcare professionals. They are postgraduates who have taken a two-year course to qualify for the role and are supervised by doctors, but they can work independently with appropriate support in GP surgeries and hospitals.
On a second appointment with a PA, Mr Harris said he was prescribed antidepressants. He “didn’t bother” taking them as he knew he was not depressed.
Professor Gillian Leng, president of the Royal Society of Medicine, and author of the review into physician associate and anaesthesia associate professions, found six patient deaths linked to contact with PAs have been recorded by coroners in England.
Mr Harris supports the recommendation that PAs should be banned from diagnosing patients.
While Mr Harris had been to GPs over the years about his stomach pains and not received an accurate diagnosis, some doctors had told him the issue was diet related and recommended cutting out dairy, while others said they could not find what was wrong.
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Read MoreA week after a second appointment with a PA, he was rushed into hospital with a twisted gut. It was then that Mr Harris was diagnosed with diverticulitis, a condition that affects the large intestine, and can cause severe, constant abdominal pain and other symptoms. It is caused by small bulges or pouches in the walls of the intestine called diverticula.
Rea Jackson, Mr Harris’s partner, who has veterinary experience, said: “Instead of referring him to gastroenterologist they put him on amitripyline [an antidepressant], which made Dan give up. It was very frustrating knowing what was wrong with him but nobody would listen to us.”
It can lead to complications that require surgery.
“I wouldn’t have had to have an emergency operation to start with,” he said.
“They operated on me and did it wrong. And then I went back again for a reversal – they did that wrong, then I was in a coma,” he said.
Mr Harris, now has two stomas, which he described as “absolutely horrendous”. He is also suffering with two hernias.
Why is there controversy around PAs?
PAs and anaesthesia associates (AAs) were introduced into the NHS in the early 2000s as a rapid measure to reduce workforce pressures in the NHS.
Despite undergoing significantly shorter training, PAs and AAs, although to a lesser extent, have been used to fill roles designed for doctors in numerous instances.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has raised concerns over the blurring of the lines between doctors and PAs and AAs, who they say are not medically qualified, and taken the General Medical Council to court over the matter.
In response to the row over their responsibilities and high-profile patient deaths following misdiagnosis by PAs, Health Secretary Wes Streeting ordered Professor Leng’s review.
It found that while the PA role is “is working well in some places, but there indeed has been some substitution and any substitution is clearly risky and confusing for patients”.
The report made 18 recommendations, all of which the Government has accepted, Streeting said.
However, the BMA said these are not “sufficient” to protect both patients and doctors.
Mr Harris has to have another two operations before he can start to put the ordeal behind him. And with a recommended recovery time of 18 months between each operation, it will be around four years before he can actually begin to do that.
Not being able to work “drives me insane”, he said. It has also had a huge financial impact. Mr Harris is now in receipt of sickness benefit after recently running out of his savings. He has also had to sell prized possessions.
“It’s messed my whole life up and completely stopped my whole life.”
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