05 April Presidents update on MTAS
From Mmc
he serious concerns about MTAS and MMC remain top of the agenda for all UK consultants and trainees, and so I think it is appropriate to use this regular e-bulletin exclusively for an update on important developments today. Apologies to those working abroad, but many of you will want to follow the events precipitated by the chaos in the new appointments system for our junior doctors that has threatened to seriously damage the medical profession in this country.
I want to firstly reiterate my profound thanks to all consultants who have worked so hard on the selection, interviewing and counselling of applicants, and to trainees for navigating their way through a disturbing and uncertain process, not knowing if it would be scrapped at any moment.
Many of you will know that on 21st March our Council lay down strict criteria to be met if consultant physicians were to cooperate with the continuing selection process (<http://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/news/statements/statements_mtas-01.htm>). I believe these have been met by the Review Group, whose statement from today (<http://www.mmc.nhs.uk/download_files/RG-statement-4-April-2007.pdf>) has been incorporated into a letter that has gone to all consultants in England. The most important recent progress has been to not only provide a minimum of one first-choice interview for every eligible candidate, chosen in the knowledge of competitive ratios, but also allow the interviews undertaken or offered (representing thousands of hours effort) to be honoured.
Through the use of CV's and probing interviews, we have achieved entry into specialist training programmes on the basis of objective criteria that recognise scholarly and clinical achievement. There has also been widespread recognition that MMC training programmes have become progressively less flexible as the hurried planning process has taken place, and there is now a real opportunity to reintroduce the intended flexibility that our bright and creative young doctors deserve. I entirely agree that these two principles, outlined by Professor Morris Brown and colleagues in today's The Times should not be compromised.
This sorry episode in British medicine is not yet over. We need to ensure that trainees aiming for an academic career are dealt with fairly and that particular problems of individual specialties are addressed by the Review Group to our satisfaction and within the principles above. Finally we must await and act on the full independent review that we called on from Government - to determine the role of PMETB, Colleges, Deans and the Department of Health in the MTAS process and MMC and rectify mistakes.
Meanwhile I am enormously grateful to so many of you who have fed back practical suggestions and advice in recent weeks. I am committed to seeing through this unhappy episode to the best possible outcome for patients, trainees and consultants.
Professor Ian Gilmore
President
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