Table 3.

Supporting factors for the employment of physician associates (PAs) as reported by medical directors

Factor influencing PA employment	Number of respondents, n(%)
	Employing (n = 20)	Considering (n = 44)	Not considering (n = 7)
Shortage of medical staff to recruit	17 (85)	32 (73)	0
To improve workflow and continuity in medical/consultant teams	14 (70)	35 (80)	0
To help address the management of junior doctor working hours to be compliant with the EU working time directive	14 (70)	27 (61)	1 (14)
Piloting to see whether PAs make an efficient/effective contribution to the consultant medical team	10 (50)	0	0
To support the medical team so that specialty registrars are able to meet the required training standards	8 (40)	26 (59)	1 (14)
Having successfully employed one or more PAs, other consultants requested PAs as part of their team	7 (35)	n/a	n/a
To reduce staff costs	5 (25)	8 (18)	0
Other	1 (5)	5 (11)	3 (43)
None	0	2 (5)	0