David Lidington
From Mmc
2 April 07
Dear Dr,
Thank you very much for your letter about the RemedyUK march. I am afraid I was unable to attend the meeting for MPs on 20 March as I was busy with my debate on the Government's house-building plans for Aylesbury Vale.
It is appalling that it took such a shambles before the Government admitted the need for a serious review of what is happening to medical training. In December 2005, the Shadow Health Secretary alerted the Government to concerns about the number of training places available and was assured by the Health Secretary that she was working on a resolution. A year later, Lord Warner offered further empty assurances, when he said, "Doctors in training in England should consequently be pretty confident about securing a training post". But it is clear from your letter and the many others we have received that junior doctors have been abysmally let down.
In addition to concern about the number of training places, my Conservative colleagues and I have received hundreds of letters complaining about the electronic application system, MTAS. Technical failures mean that many applications were not received; confidential data were open to alteration by unauthorised persons and wrong appointments issued for interviews, wasting both application time and that of consultant scrutinisers. Patricia Hewitt finally admitted that the new system has created "a high degree of insecurity" for junior doctors, but has continued to refuse to apologise for the chaos. I have written her to ask for more information about her comments on the MTAS computer and the loss of applications.
My colleague, Andrew Lansley, Shadow Secretary of State for Health, has written to Patricia Hewitt on numerous occasions to ask her how she is tackling the problems being experienced. We welcomed the Government's last-minute acceptance of the case for a review, and initially it seemed that some progress has been made. However, we have concerns which the Government has failed to respond to.
First, it remains unclear to what extent the number of applications exceeds the number of training posts available. Second, the review group has announced that all junior doctors will be given only one interview in the first round - which has resulted in the BMA withdrawing from the review group. We want assurances that junior doctors who have already had their first interview will not be disadvantaged as a result. It is also unclear as to whether MMC will set the same criteria across the UK. A Written Ministerial Statement suggested that the criteria by which junior doctors would be assessed may be dependent on local circumstances, yet this contradicts a statement by Patricia Hewitt. We are still awaiting a response from the Secretary of State about these matters.
The Government has badly mishandled the recruitment process. As David Cameron has said, the review of MMC must engage professionals and be a full and proper review, not a paper exercise. The Government promised that every junior doctor in England would have a training post, and we must hold them to that promise. I assure you that we will continue to hold the Government to account for the failures manifested in Modernising Medical Careers, but we will also seek constructive proposals to enable junior doctors to pursue their vocation in medicine in this country.
I hope you will understand that it is difficult to make any more concrete promises until the current situation is clearer.
David Lidington
