BMA chief resigns in junior doctors computer fiasco
From Mmc
BMA chief resigns in junior doctors computer fiasco
by DANIEL MARTIN » Last updated at 22:51pm on 20th May 2007
The chairman of the British Medical Association was forced to resign yesterday following a barrage of complaints from doctors angry at his support for the Government over the recruitment fiasco.
Jim Johnson stepped down after four years over claims that he was not standing up for junior doctors and was too close to ministers.
He is the latest victim of the furore surrounding Modernising Medical Careers, the flawed online recruitment system introduced to fill training posts for junior doctors. There are only around 18,000 posts available for more than 30,000 applicants.
The computer system remains suspended after breaking down under the pressure of the flood of applications. Critics say the questions on the form were not sufficient for doctors to tell whether applicants were good or bad candidates.
Consultants across the country refused to interview candidates, saying they had no confidence the right people were selected.
It forced the government to abandon the online system and go back to the old method based on traditional CVs.
Not one doctor has been appointed yet even though they are meant to take up their posts on August 1 – provoking fears that operations will have to be cancelled owing to staff shortages.
Through the crisis, some junior doctors have accused the BMA of not standing up for them effectively enough by refusing to support calls for the entire application process to be scrapped.
The crisis came to a head last week when Mr Johnson wrote to a national newspaper supporting the Government’s proposals for reforming the system but not scrapping it, and the BMA opposed a High Court move by the junior doctors’ pressure group Remedy UK to scrap the entire recruitment process.
The BMA was bombarded with more than 500 angry e-mails and phone calls from doctors.
Mr Johnson, 60, is a vascular consultant at Halton Hospital in Runcorn, Cheshire, specialising in thyroid surgery.
He survived a no-confidence motion at the BMA’s annual meeting last year after it was claimed he had failed patients and doctors by failing to oppose the Government's NHS reform programme.
Last night he told Channel 4 News: "It is a matter of regret that I am having to resign because I have lost the confidence of a very large number of members of the BMA council.
"But this is no ordinary political situation. The medical profession is on the edge."
His resignation represents the second senior scalp to fall victim to the recruitment fiasco. Earlier this year the MMC’s national director Professor Alan Crockard resigned.
Now opposition politicians have called on Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt to do the same.
Tory health spokesman Andrew Lansley said: "There has been a huge loss of confidence in the leadership of the NHS. Patricia Hewitt has to resign to begin the process of restoring that confidence."
