Parents whose daughter's killer blood clot symptoms were dismissed as 'anxiety' by 'physician associates' say she'd be alive if she had gone to A&E

The grieving parents of a young actress who died after her blood clot symptoms were misdiagnosed by a physician associate (PA) as anxiety say she would be alive if she had been sent to A&E.

Emily Chesterton died in 2022 three weeks after her 30th birthday when a PA mistook a clot on her lungs as anxiety and a sprain.

Emily, who was from Greater Manchester but had moved to London to pursue a career in acting, believed she had been seen by a GP at her surgery in North London.

But instead a physician associate prescribed her propranolol medication for anxiety.

She collapsed later that evening and was rushed to hospital. However her heart had stopped beating and doctors could not save her life.

A coroner concluded Emily could have been saved if she had been to A&E and given treatment for a pulmonary embolism.

Her heartbroken mother Marion said the family only found out a week before her daughter's inquest took place that she hadn't see a doctor.

The emotional mother told Good Morning Britain today: 'We believed she was a doctor.

'As you said before, right until the week before the inquest five months later, that was when we were only told it wasn't a doctor it was a physician associate.

'The first thing I said was "well what is a physician associate?". I had to sit down, I remember I had to have a good few minutes to myself and I was thinking "what is going on?". '

Emily's symptoms included calf pain, a swollen and hot leg, shortness of breath and she was finding it increasingly difficult to walk.

Her father, Brendan, said everyone he had spoken to had told him that a pain in the calf was 'medical 101' that it was a clot.

'We've said the name (physician associate) is rather grand,' he said. 'A physician associate sounds even better than junior doctor. The name itself we objected to. We were told nothing could be done about the naming of them. But it suggests someone who is highly trained and highly competent. B

'But people I've talked to, the say a pain in the calf is like medical 101. Everyone should realise that that is indicative of some kind of clot. She didn't notify that.'

The parents said they had been left feeling reassured after Emily had seen what she believed to be a GP.

'She (Emily) trusted the doctor,' Brendan said. ;She came out and said "I've seen the doctor, the doctor said it is just anxiety". So it was a trust in the profession. We didn't question that, well the doctor said it's that.'

Marion added: 'We were reassured as she came out and said "it isn't anything serious, I'm being sent tomorrow for a chest X-ray", so that's the moment I was thinking "she doesn't look well".

'We had seen her three weeks previously and thought "what should we do?" And because we had believed she had seen a doctor and she was going to hospital the next day for an X-ray we thought we are trusting the doctors.'

The GP practice where Emily was seen, the Vale Practice in Crouch End, has since stopped employing PAs.

Marion and Brendan , both retired teachers, have joined growing calls for there to be greater clarity on the role of PAs.

The Mail on Sunday first raised the alarm about PAs last year and has since been running a campaign to Rein In The Physician Associates.

PAs do not go to medical school and instead do two years of post-graduate training on top of a degree in a subject like biomedical sciences.

First introduced in 2003, a PA role currently allows them to take medical histories, perform physical examinations, analyse test results and make diagnoses.

A group of senior doctors is planning to sue the General Medical Council in an unprecedented attack on the NHS's growing reliance on PAs.

The group, Anaesthetists United, has raised more than £50,000 to take the GMC to court, claiming that its plan to start regulating the so-called 'cut-price medics' fails to set out clear rules over what PAs can and cannot do.

The Royal College of GPs voted earlier this month to ban PAs from working in practices.

The College — which represents 50,000-plus GPs — said almost two thirds of voters agreed to oppose PAs from working in surgeries.

The NHS employs more than 3,500 PAs in England and plans to increase this to 10,000 by 2036 . Around 2,000 currently work in general practices across the country.

Professor Kamila Hawthorne, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said at the time: 'It became very clear at today's Council discussion that we needed to speak out in opposition to the PA role within a general practice setting.

'I am pleased that our processes have enabled us to do this in a collegiate and democratic way.'