Specialist training for junior doctors is still a lottery
From Mmc
Thursday March 15, 2007
We have just received an eight-page missive from our local primary care trust detailing all the procedures and operations which will not now be available on the NHS in our area. These include surgery for varicose veins, haemorrhoids, lipoma, sebaceous cysts, gallstones, carpal tunnel syndrome and trigger finger, plus many others. Neither will they offer physiotherapy ultrasound, spinal fusion for chronic back pain nor infertility investigation and treatment. While none of these conditions is life threatening, they can and do have a major impact on the quality of people's lives. They were withdrawn by the PCT purely to save money and without any consultation with local people. If these cuts were announced by the Department of Health at national level, there would be an outcry. But because they are being done piecemeal, PCT by PCT, this government manages to hack away at the NHS by stealth. I fear for the future of our health service.
Name and address supplied
We are alarmed by the new process for selecting young doctors for specialist training, called Medical Training Application Service (MTAS). This introduced an untested online system which abandoned long-recognised measures of the clinical skills required by successful doctors, and forbade use of CVs at short-listing or interview. The resulting lottery, compounded by overwhelming numbers of applicants from the new EU, has resulted in gross injustices. Thousands of our brightest trainees have no hopes of progression in their area of greatest aptitude (medicine, surgery, general practice etc), while thousands more have been discarded altogether.
While we initially welcomed the reported climbdown (Climbdown over NHS job rules for doctors, March 10), this appears a charade as thousands have been forbidden permission to re-apply. Almost 1,500 doctors, senior and junior, have answered our online questionnaire since the weekend, of whom 90% have called for the process to be stopped altogether and 95% wish its architects to resign.
MTAS is part of a wider overhaul of medical training known as Modernising Medical Careers, introduced like MTAS by government diktat without involvement by those experienced in medical education and training. The threat to the NHS and people with medical problems in future decades is very real. We support the need to modernise medical training, as successfully undertaken in other countries. The chaos of MMC/MTAS has delayed progress and those responsible should depart.
Morris Brown, consultant physician and professor of clinical pharmacology, University of Cambridge Hugh Barr, consultant surgeon and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Bioscience, Cranfield Postgraduate Medical School
Nick Brooks, consultant physician and president, British Cardiovascular Society
Edwina Brown, consultant physician and professor of renal medicine, Imperial College, London
John Camm, consultant physician and professor of clinical cardiology, St. George's hospital medical school
Mark Caulfield, consultant physician, professor of clinical pharmacology, Queen Mary, University of London
Shern Chew, consultant physician and professor of endocrine metabolism, Queen Mary, University of London
Edwin Chilvers, consultant physician and professor of respiratory medicine, University of Cambridge
Paul Corris, consultant physician and professor of thoracic medicine, University of Newcastle
Paul Durrington, consultant physician and professor of medicine, University of Manchester
Paul Emery, consultant physician and professor of rheumatology, University of Leeds
John Gibson, consultant physician and professor of respiratory medicine,University of Newcastle
Ashley Grossman, consultant physician and professor of endocrinology, Queen Mary, University of London
Alistair Hall, consultant physician and professor of clinical cardiology, University of Leeds
George Hart, consultant physician and professor of medicine, University of Liverpool
Tony Heagerty, consultant physician and professor of medicine, University of Manchester
Humphrey Hodgson, consultant physician and vice-dean, professor of medicine, Royal Free & University College School of Medicine
Philip Home, consultant physician and professor of diabetic endocrinology, University of Newcastle
Richard Hughes, consultant physician and professor of neurology, Kings College London
Kay-Tee Khaw, consultant physician and professor of clinical gerontology, University of Cambridge
John Lazarus, consultant physician and professor of clinical endocrinology, University of Cardiff
David Leaper, emeritus professor of surgery, University of Newcastle
Peter McCollum, consultant surgeon and professor of vascular surgery, University of Hull
John Monson, consultant surgeon and professor of surgery, University of Hull
Professor Philip Poole-Wilson, consultant physician and professor of cardiology, Imperial College, London
Stephen O'Rahilly, FRS, consultant physician and professor of clinical biochemistry, University of Cambridge
James Ritter, consultant physician and professor of clinical pharmacology, Kings College, London
Brian Rowlands, consultant surgeon and professor of surgery, University of Nottingham
Wendy Savage, former consultant obstetrician and professor of obstetrics & gynaecology
Julian Scott, consultant surgeon and professor of vascular surgery, University of Leeds
Alan Silman, consultant physician and professor of rheumatic disease epidemiology, University of Manchester
Robert Sutton, consultant surgeon and professor of surgery, University of Liverpool
Deborah Symons, consultant physician and professor of rheumatology, University of Manchester
Roy Taylor, consultant physician and professor of medicine & metabolism, University of Newcastle
Doug Turnbull, consultant physician and professor of neurology, University of Newcastle
Hugh Watkins, consultant physician and professor of cardiology, University of Oxford
Robert Wilcox, consultant physician and professor of cardiovascular medicine, University of Nottingham
Nick Wright, warden, Queen Mary College, London
