E-mail Announcement: Wednesday 21st March 2007
From Mmc
E-mail Announcement: Wednesday 21st March 2007
Medical Training Application Service (MTAS)
We are writing to bring you up to date with what the College is doing with regard to the MTAS process. You are all only too aware that there are aspects of the selection process that have not gone well, and for some it appears to have gone very badly.
Nevertheless thanks to the hard work and dedication of many paediatricians good candidates have been short listed and interviewed. In paediatrics we have about 4-6 applications for each post - compared to 18-20 in some other specialties. Although this may be worrying, in that we would like to attract more candidates into paediatrics, it does mean that we will end up with a reasonable match between candidates and posts - bearing in mind that each candidate has 4 options. This also means that we anticipate having significant numbers of excellent training opportunities remaining for the second round. The specialties with larger numbers of applicants per post are having more problems than we are.
95% of UK graduates applying for ST1 from FY2 have gained interviews - but the main problems lie with SHOs applying for ST3/4.
We are keen to ensure the right people are selected and know that concerns have been raised that the selection process may have missed some good candidates. Whilst we do not as yet have hard evidence of this there is certainly anecdotal evidence that some who did not get an interview in round 1 should have done so. You may be aware that a review team has been set up by the DH in order to decide how to rectify this and restore confidence and credibility in the process. It is chaired by Neil Douglas, President of the RCP Edinburgh and consists of several College Presidents, Jonathan Fielden of the BMA, Martin Marshall (Deputy CMO) and others from the Dept of Health and the Workforce team. Paul Dimitri, a paediatric trainee, is part of the review team and we have been very proud of his contribution.
An emergency meeting of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, the CMO and the review team was held on Tuesday 20th March to discuss our views as to how to proceed. There has been a suggestion that candidates not short-listed may be re-assessed "face-to-face"as to suitability for interview. Concerns have been raised as to whether we have the capacity or the good will of assessors to do this in the time frame. Alternatively they may be given interviews in the first or second deaneries of their choice and this seems the preferred option for ST3/4 applicants.
The review team will be reaching a decision by the end of this week having heard our views over the pros and cons of the various options. By the time we are in York the decision as to how to proceed with MTAS will hopefully have been taken and we will have several opportunities there to debate and discuss this.
In the mean-time, we assure you all, trainees and trainers alike, that we are doing our best on your behalf and will keep you updated.
Dr Patricia Hamilton President
Dr Mary McGraw Vice President Training and Assessment
