Wes Streeting faces a fresh battle with a medical union, days after vowing he would not to give in to militant doctors striking over pay.
The Health Secretary could be hit with a judicial review over his decision to cut back use of physician associates (PAs) in the NHS.
Earlier this month, Mr Streeting and NHS England banned PAs, who have less extensive training than doctors, from seeing undiagnosed patients.
It came after an independent review recommended a serious narrowing of their scope of work.
Last night MPs warned the decision, combined with the five-day doctors’ strike, will leave patients more at risk and make it harder to clear backlogs. They claimed thousands of patients could miss appointments as a result.
