Hewitt apologises over training chaos
From Mmc
Hewitt apologises over training chaos
By George Jones, Political Editor Last Updated: 6:34am BST 17/04/2007
Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, apologised "unreservedly" to doctors yesterday for the recent chaos over medical training.
She announced that an independent review would be established to salvage the Government's policy of modernising the medical career structure for junior doctors.
A new online system for selecting doctors for training posts has been criticised for failing to select the best candidates. Junior doctors warned that it could result in at least 6,000 ending up without training posts. Doctors said the forms were badly worded, did not ask pertinent questions, did not allow them to set out relevant qualifications and experience, and had no facility for attaching a CV. advertisement
The result was that the best candidates were not being selected for the right jobs and the system had left thousands without any interview at all.
Announcing the review, Miss Hewitt told the Commons it would "clarify and strengthen the principles of the much-criticised Modernising Medical Careers programme and ensure that necessary changes were made in the future. She said Government now had "the right way forward after an agreement was reached between the British Medical Association, the Royal Colleges and ministers this month on the best way out of the crisis over training.
"This has been a time of great distress for junior doctors and their families and I apologise unreservedly to them for the anxiety that has been caused," she said.
Now, junior doctors have been guaranteed an interview for their first-choice job. According to BMA figures, 34,250 junior doctors have applied for 18,500 specialist posts around the UK.
Andrew Lansley, the shadow health spokesman, said Miss Hewitt had been forced to "eat three helpings of humble pie over the issue - making an apology, admitting that at the second round of interviews there would be access to a structured CV, and in accepting the need for a strategic review.
Miss Hewitt said NHS job offers for specialist training would begin in early June and applicants could be confident of fair treatment.
