7 March Trainee Group Press statement

From Mmc

Medical Training Application Service (MTAS)

Following feedback from many trainees, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges’ Trainee Group has been alarmed to hear of the exposure of serious weaknesses in the Medical Training and Application Service (MTAS), the system which was originally designed to successfully place doctors in Specialty Training posts. We understand that many capable and bright junior doctors have been left without interviews, leaving them distressed and disillusioned with the system, after they had been led to understand from sources such as Lord Warner’s report, that there would be jobs for all doctors. The Academy Trainee Group (ATG) has been made aware of a number of problematic areas. These include difficulties in discriminating between applicants at shortlisting, shortfalls in the feedback process for unsuccessful trainees, difficulties in gaining technical support and multiple system errors including failure of the plagiarism software. We are aware that many of our senior colleagues have given up a lot of their time to try and ensure that shortlisting was achieved within the deadline set by MMC. However, shortlisters have been overwhelmed with the number of applications in some regions making it difficult to give application forms the time and attention that they deserve. The ATG has been involved in discussions with the DoH to try and remedy the serious errors that have been identified in the system before the implementation of round 2 of the MTAS process. We have asked for an appeals procedure to be established prior to interviews to deal with trainees that feel that they have been treated unfairly. Information that we have requested regarding shortlisting ratios should help further identify problem areas. Furthermore, we support an urgent feedback process to assist unsuccessful applicants prior to the opening of round 2. We welcome the Government’s decision to carry out an urgent review of the MTAS. We would like to ensure that trainees are treated fairly in a system that should be designed to ensure that candidates are selected appropriately to the posts that they apply for. We are committed to working with other professional bodies to ensure that these goals are achieved. 7th March 2007 Ends