Outrage at another jobs fiasco for junior doctors
From Mmc
Outrage at another jobs fiasco for junior doctors
CALUM MacDONALD May 26 2007
Scottish ministers have been forced to try to clear up yet another mess caused by the reform of medical training and the new recruitment process for junior doctors.
As a result of the failure of the computerised Medical Training Application Service (MTAS), which was designed to assign specialist training posts, offers for jobs at Scottish hospitals have been made weeks before those in England.
As a result there are now many English doctors holding on to Scottish job offers as insurance while they wait to hear whether their applications to English institutions have been accepted.
It is thought that many, once offered jobs in England, will reject their Scottish offers. In the meantime, many Scottish doctors who wish to work in Scotland, but who were unsuccessful in the first round of applications, are stuck in limbo until the English offers are made next month. Scottish places held provisionally by English doctors will then be freed up and go back into the system.
There is also the potential problem of Scottish doctors accepting their second or third choices because they were un-successful in getting their favour-ed job, only to see it become available and be given to someone below them on the rankings.
Dr Kevin Cormack, a Scottish representative for the pressure group Remedy UK, said the fear was that these newly-vacant posts would not be redistributed according to existing rankings.
As these posts are among the most attractive in Scotland, he said it was only fair that the best candidates had first choice, but claimed this would not happen because of the administrative burden on the NHS.
He said: "We are being treated with disdain. This feels like a stab in the back. NHS Scotland just can't be bothered with the extra work. It's unfair on doctors and their families, who will suffer the consequences for years to come."
However, Dr Graeme Eunson, chairman of the BMA's Scottish Junior Doctors' Committee, said: "It is a complicated situation. We are doing all we can to make the best of a bad lot."
He added that the Scottish Executive was sympathetic to the situation and was trying to find a way of offering the recycled posts to the highest-ranking candidates, even if they had already accepted other jobs.
