PAMVR

Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register

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Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register...

The Physician Associate Managed Voluntary Register (PAMVR) is held exclusively by the Faculty of Physician Associates (FPA), and allows employers to check whether an applicant or employee is a fully qualified and approved physician associate.

The PAMVR was established in June 2010 to provide public protection and safety, set standards for post graduate education and development, and to advance towards statutory regulation.

The FPA reviews applications to join the PAMVR, and establishes whether the physician associate applying is fit to practice in the UK. If a physician associate is listed on the PAMVR, then employers, members of the public, supervisors and other healthcare professionals can be safe in the knowledge that they are a fully qualified and approved physician associate. 

To view the PAMVR please click below.

PAMVR Pamphlet

Joining the PAMVR

To be registered on the PAMVR, you must apply for FPA physician associate membership and meet all of the eligibility criteria. Please see the  membership page  for details on how to join. 

The PAMVR does not currently have force of law, so is 'voluntary' as its name suggests. However, the FPA strongly encourages all qualified physician associates to join the register, and all trusts and practices to ensure that the physician associates they employ are registered.

While work towards statutory regulation is underway, the overall decision regarding the eventual registering body for physician associates will be made by the government. All UK-based physician associates are therefore strongly encouraged to join the PAMVR as it will form the initial list of physician associates to enter a statutory register when established.

As soon as a statutory register is in place, those on the managed voluntary register are expected to be transferred onto the statutory register, the title physician associate will become protected, and only those on the statutory register will legally be allowed to practice as a physician associate in the UK.

Why statutory regulation?

In February 2011, the UK government published  Enabling Excellence: Autonomy and Accountability for Health and Social Care Staff , a command paper setting out its policy on professional regulation. The paper outlined a system of assured voluntary registration and stated that in the future statutory regulation will only be considered where there is a ‘compelling case’ and where ‘voluntary registers are not considered sufficient to manage this risk’.

The faculty of physician associates firmly believes that physician associates are a compelling case and that voluntary registers are not sufficient to manage the potential risk. Based on this, the profession will continue to campaign for statutory regulation.

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