Health Secretary Wes Streeting discusses the NHS workforce plan and the role of physician associates. Streeting critiques the previous government's workforce plan and emphasises the need to revise it in light of the Leng Review. He assures that physici...

Wes Streeting interview; Part 3 of 5ENGLAND: London:INTWes Streeting MP (Health Secretary) interview SOTQ: NOW THE PREVIOUS GOVERNMENT'S WORKFORCE PLAN HAD IN IT AN INCREASE, A BIG INCREASE OF PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATES / WHAT WILL YOU DO WHEN YOU LOOK AT THE WORKFORCE PLAN, WILL YOU CURB THE GROWTH OF THIS PROFESSION- We're revising the entire NHS workforce plan because the one from the previous government made next to no sense / I mean, it assumed nothing changes in the NHS, that the revolution in life sciences and medical technology isn't happening / we just see this exponential growth in staff numbers to the extent that by the end of the century, on current trajectory, 100 per cent of the country will be working for the NHS / that's clearly crackers / so we've got to look at the whole workforce plan with a fresh pair of eyes / and we will take into account the Leng review when thinking about these roles, how many are needed, and how they'll be deployed in the future / and I know there'll be people watching who are physician or anaesthetist associates, and they'll be thinking, well, what does this mean for me and my job / but those jobs are safe / we do need these people in the NHS / the critical thing is to do the job they're trained to do, and only the job they're trained to doQ: WILL YOU CURB THE GROWTH OF PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATES IN THE NHS IN ENGLAND- Well, we're looking at the whole workforce plan in light of the, not just the Leng Review, but the 10-year plan for health that we published just the other week / so I think we do have to look again at the assumptions made by the previous government on these, what are now assistant roles, to make sure we've got the right balance and ultimately I think there is a role for assistants / I think they can in particular free up doctors to do the things that only doctors can do and crucially doctors are trained to do, what we are definitely going to curb is assistants going beyond the things that they're tr...