We now have a team of 13 Physician Associates (PA) as part of our teams at CHFT -  making us the best PA recruiter in the region.

Ten are with medicine and we have three with surgery and we hope to continue the trend, since it all started back in January last year.

Their consultant lead Dr Sarah Hoye reckons CHFT has a strong appeal due to the good diploma training programme, fab study and excellent teaching programmes we are offering. PAs have all completed a three-year science based degree prior to doing a two-year PA diploma.

Dr Hoye, said: " CHFT presents itself very well as a PA employer with lots of positivity around the role and support from within. We hope to be able to continue to welcome our PAs in the years to come to our teams.

Tributes from CHFT to our PAs.

Consultant Nick Scriven, said: "PAs have been working alongside our established medical teams in our AMUs for months now following training with us. They are becoming a valued and established part of the team helping the doctors with many tasks. We really look forward to the day the PA regulation is extended so that they can take on a more expanded role that will further enhance their value to the Trust."

Surgeon Arin Saha, said: “The general surgical department has been delighted with the positive impact our PAs (Rehma, Zuby and Sunita) have had. They have integrated really well into the surgical teams and form an invaluable part of the workforce, contributing to emergency surgical care and ward-based management. Their work has also been recognised at a national level; a research study detailing the positive effect of PAs on the surgical workforce from our department has been accepted for presentation at a prestigious national surgical conference (Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland) in May 2018 and we look forward to sharing our learning experiences with the wider surgical community then and beyond.”