Email from MTAS 'REVIEW OF MODERNISING MEDICAL CAREERS'- 16 March 07
From Mmc
16 March 2007
Announcement to Applicants (sent via MTAS e-mail)
REVIEW OF MODERNISING MEDICAL CAREERS
The independent review group, examining the selection process for junior doctors, met for the third time and agreed that round one should continue and that changes should be made to strengthen the implementation process at each level. The group agreed to set out full details next week for everyone involved in the process.
The review group considered a wide range of evidence and listened carefully to the concerns of the profession and NHS employers. The group is led by Professor Neil Douglas and was set up by the Department of Health on 6th March to examine what improvements needed to be made to the new MMC selection process for doctors applying for consultancy training posts. The group made the following recommendations:
• All eligible ST3 and 4 applicants will be guaranteed an interview for their first or second choice of training post. (This includes those who have been offered only their third or fourth choice at the moment).
• All applicants at ST1 who have not been short-listed for any interviews will have their application reviewed. The operational details of this will be set out next week. However, where candidates meet the selection criteria they may be offered an interview in Round 1. If not, they will be offered career guidance and support to enter Round 2.
• All applicants for ST2 who have not been short-listed for interview will be offered a face-to-face review with a trained medical advisor to determine whether they meet the short-listing criteria. Those who meet the criteria may be offered an interview in Round 1. Those who are not selected for interview will be offered career guidance and support to enter Round 2.
The Department of Health will now work to implement this next week.
Deaneries across England have said that they have already interviewed many excellent doctors and that the new system is an improvement on the less structured nature of the old system. The GP recruitment continues to work very well with a record number of GPs being recruited into the NHS.
The Group also reviewed data on the numbers of training places and the competition ratios. It recommended that this information on the competition ratios should be made available immediately for candidates on the MTAS website: http://www.mtas.nhs.uk/
The four UK Health departments have identified over 23,000 training posts in the UK, and will be working with employers over the coming week to confirm how many are available through MTAS.
Training Posts 2007
- UK – over 23,000
- England – over 19,000
- Devolved administrations – over 4,000
