In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, the medical associate professions are three novel

profession A profession is a field of work that has been successfully ''professionalized''. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, '' professionals'', who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by ...

al groups of

mid-level practitioners Mid-level practitioners, also called non-physician practitioners or advanced practice providers, are health care providers who have a defined scope of practice. The term ''mid-level'' refers to the complexity of healthcare situations they handl ...

in the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

who are not qualified in

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

, but who have specific education, training and team frameworks allowing them to deliver some aspects of healthcare that were traditionally restricted to

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

s. The three roles are: *

Anaesthesia associate In the United Kingdom, an anaesthesia associate is a healthcare worker who provides anaesthesia under the medical direction and supervision of a consultant anaesthetist (who is a medical doctor). Anaesthesia associates are not doctors themselves, ...

* Physician associate *

Surgical care practitioner Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

A fourth professional group, advanced critical care practitioners, were formerly classed under the scope of the medical associate professions, but voted to withdraw from this in April 2022.https://www.ficm.ac.uk/joint-statement-accps-to-formally-align-with-the-centre-for-advancing-practice Since 2016, a MAP Oversight Board exists within Health Education England.

References

Health care occupations National Health Service {{Job-stub