A NEW tier of medical professionals are set to see patients in Reading to ease the pressure off overloaded GPs in one of a handful of national pilot projects.

Students of any age with a degree in a health or science related course will be able to take intensive training to create the brand new role in the NHS.

Patients will then book appointments to see them instead of a GP.

The first batch of students in just 10 pilot projects across the UK have been recruited from degree courses and will start the two year intensive programme at the University of Reading in September.

They will then be allowed to see patients in surgeries across the Thames Valley from September 2017.

The Department of Health believe the initiative will bridge the gap between the number of retiring GPs and the lack of medical students training to become a family practitioner and help Jeremy Hunt reach the target of 1,000 physician associates practising by 2020.

Nineteen students from 100 applicants will be trained at The University of Reading that is working together with North and West Reading Clinical Commissioning Group and its chief officer Cathy Winfield.

Doctor surgeries not set to receive the first wave of new recruits have been calling the director of the Physician Associate Programme, Dr Simone Magee, desperate to have the students in their practices too.

She said: “With the pressures the NHS are currently under, physician associates, will be able to improve patient experience, shorten waiting times and increase appointments, which is essentially our aim, to improve patient experience.

“It is a very intensive programme, it is a 45 weeks year, so effectively three years training compressed down into two.

“The students will all have a health or science background and they have not only gone through rigorous academic tests, but also other exams to ensure they have the right persona and manner to be able to work in a patient facing environment.”

“This not a programme just for young people finishing a degree, this is a post graduate programme for people who want to use the skills they already have differently. In our first cohort our youngest student is 22 and the eldest is 54.”

“We’ve had GP surgeries as far as West Buckinghamshire get in touch with us to be a part of the scheme, so I really think this could be a positive solution.”

The students will spend six months in pre-clinical science training, before they take on a mixture of training and work placements at surgeries for the remaining 18 months.

Francis Brown, chairman of the Patient Participation Group at Priory Avenue surgery, Caversham, said that the physician associates were a “really good idea”, as almost 8,000 doctors will be retiring in the next 10 years.

He said: “I think in the circumstances it is a really good idea. At the moment to attract doctors into GP workis a struggle because they are going into hospitals.”