Brtish Orthopaedic Trainees Association

From Mmc

Dear member,

I have written today to Mr Ribeiro, the president of the Royal College of Surgeons of England cllaing for a withdrawl form the MTAs system. (attached) It has been copied to the other college presidents, Patricia Hewitt, Alan Crockard, Elizabeth Paice, Jo Hilbourne.

It has become clear over the last few weeks that our greatest fears have all become reality and the unfairness of the system is evident for all. The hetrogenicity of the sytem form one deanery to another has left little faith in the sytem from trainees or consultants alike. We do not see how this system of appointments can go ahead and feel that there is not enough time and too much to do to attempt to paper over the cracks whilst runing the selection process alongside. If we continue with the current process then it will be so open to challenge from those involved it will be rendered useless. We do not wnat to have a very public battle within ourselves, doing our professionalism and public confidence no go what so ever. The lawyers are already waiting in the wings to get involved.

Although there were flaws within the "old " sytem it has been working and deemed to be fairer than the current situation. We call for the appointments for august 2007 to be undertaken on a deanery level with shortlisting and interview carried out in the normal way. This obviously leaves timescales short but we feel it can be done and will give trainees attempting to gain entry into specialist training a fairer playing field.

This will obviously have implications for MMC as a whole as MTAS was a fundemantal part of the whole process. It seems difficult to see how the runthrough training could commence this august. We fully support the New Orthopaedic Curriculum and the tools put in place to complement training of the future. Training in Orthopaedics under the proposed MMC structure would be possible and if PMETB, the Colleges and SAC's, maintain their standards as promised then the quality of CCT holders will not decrease. We would be prepared to support MTAs and MMC in the future if we feel that appropriate changes have been put in place.

We will continue to maintain pressure on the colleges and MMC group to provide a fit and robust system of training for the future.

Please give us your views and feeback via the website. It is only with this valuable feedback that we can take your views forward.

Craig White

President