Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust had 44 patient safety incidents involving a physician associate (PA) or anaesthesia associate (AA) in the last five years, with almost half of those occurring in the last two years, data from a freedom of information request has revealed. These incidents are classified by the NHS as patient safety events which are serious, largely preventable patient safety incidents that should not occur if healthcare providers follow established guidelines and safety recommendations, according to NHS England. And this rise in patient safety events comes as the role of PAs and AAs in UK hospitals has been met with increased scrutiny, and more reports are made over unauthorised practice and high-profile cases of negligence and misconduct. There is a scale of patient safety events that range from no harm, slight and moderate harm, to severe harm, and catastrophic – which means a patient has died. There have been four patient safety events that have resulted in slight harm, and one that was categorised as catastrophic.