Rift over junior doctors shake-up
From Mmc
Rift over junior doctors shake-up
DAMIEN HENDERSON March 15 2007
PRESSURE mounted yesterday to postpone a controversial new system of recruiting junior doctors to specialist posts after a poll showed widespread opposition from medical professionals.
A survey of more than 1700 people, including more than 400 consultants, by Cambridge University Professor Morris Brown found that most want the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) application process dropped.
However, the poll came as some of Scotland's most senior clinicians rallied round the new system, illustrating the rift in medical opinion the new Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) has created. advertisement
In a letter to The Herald today, Dr Harry Burns, Scotland's chief medical officer, and the leaders of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland and the royal colleges, defend MMC as a necessary modernisation of the training process which would make appointments fairer and lead to a better standard of care for patients.
The rift comes as hundreds of doctors are due to march in Glasgow and London tomorrow over MTAS, which has seen around 30,000 junior doctors apply for some 22,000 training posts.
Both the BMA and the royal colleges in Edinburgh and Glasgow have backed MMC while expressing reservations about the timing and method of its implementation.
However, Remedy UK, a breakaway organisation opposed to the reforms, has mounted a more widespread offensive against MMC, which it says will lead to a dramatic cut in the number of hours consultants and other specialists train.
An open letter to the British Medical Journal today warns that the future of medical research in the UK is under threat from the new recruitment and training process.
Professor John Bell, president of the Academy of Medical Sciences and Professor Sir John Tooke, chairman of the Council of Heads of Medical Schools, said the government's vision of the UK as a world-class centre for biomedical research and healthcare could "not be realised" without a research-oriented medical workforce.
