Fears 400 Ulster doctors may be jobless after new shake-up
From Mmc
Fears 400 Ulster doctors may be jobless after new shake-up
Friday, March 30, 2007 By Lesley-Anne Henry
Up to 400 of Ulster's junior doctors could be out of work by the end of the summer because of a new selection process, medics warned today.
The news comes after 200 concerned doctors voted unanimously to fight the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) - a new Government initiative aimed at cutting the length of training and creating fast track sub-consultants.
At a meeting in Belfast City Hospital last night it was claimed that junior doctor training had been thrown into chaos by MMC.
The doctors said the process used to implement the new system (Medical Training Application Service MTAS) was flawed and called for a return to traditional recruitment methods - direct application to hospital trusts.
The doctors also called for the expansion of training posts throughout Northern Ireland.
Dr Clare Newman of Northern Irish Medics, an organisation set up to lobby against MMC said the NHS needed more, not less, doctors. She said: "The Department of Health are attempting to fit both the old-style Senior House Officer trainees and new-style Foundation Programme trainees into the same system at the same time, without planning it. There are 906 applicants for the 505 training posts starting in August 2007 in Northern Ireland.
"All junior doctors are on short term contracts which will terminate in August, so this will result in around 400 doctors in Northern Ireland being made jobless."
