More problems for MTAS?
From Mmc
More problems for MTAS?
Last Modified: 14 May 2007 By: Andy Davies
Operations will be delayed and interviews cancelled: Channel 4 News has uncovered yet more problems with the controversial new system for appointing junior doctors.
This week thousands of junior doctors are being interviewed for specialist training jobs in a new national recruitment programme which has caused intense debate within the British medical world.
The short listing process was heavily criticised for discarding some of the best applicants. So every candidate in England was offered a one-off so-called rescue interview. But with many of these interviews needing up to 9 consultants to sit on the panel, the system is under intense pressure.
Even more so, now that some consultants are answering calls to boycott the whole process - and the boycott may be working.
Channel 4 News has learned that medical schools in London have now had to cancel some interviews due to a lack of consultants.
More significantly, perhaps, Channel 4 News can also confirm that patient operations are being cancelled and rescheduled as some consultants struggle to fit their work around interviews.
However this new recruitment system is viewed within medicine - and there are those who do favour it over the old system - there is increasing anxiety within the profession that this year's programme has become so riddled with problems, it will just have to be abandoned.
Channel 4 News has learned that medical departments around the UK are now drawing detailed emergency strategies for what to do if the MTAS recruitment programme is scrapped. We've obtained a copy of one such contingency plan, that of the paediatric department at St Mary's Hospital in West London.0020
The document begins with a fairly pessimistic assessment of the system known as MTAS, the Medical Training Application Service.
"As you are all well aware no Senior House Officer posts have been issued for August as of yet. The computer failures, the judicial review and the failings of the system to date, all add to a general feeling that MTAS may not continue " - Planning document, St Marys NHS Trust "The computer failures, the judicial review and the failings of the system to date, all add to a general feeling that MTAS may not continue."
Planning document, St Marys NHS Trust
The document outlines two strategies to cope with MTAS being cancelled outright:
"Plan B: St. Marys NHS Trust can advertise its vacant positions as was the old system. Adverts are being prepared for this eventuality."
"Plan C: The current batch of SHOs rotate within the department for 6 months whilst (hopefully) something more concrete and at a higher level gets sorted" This afternoon we approached the author of the report for a comment, who said that personally she hoped the MTAS system would be abandoned saying it was a 'flawed' system.
At the heart of this new recruitment programme is an online application system which is currently suspended following a major security breach exposed by this programme.
Now Channel 4 News has discovered that further data problems have resulted in a number of junior doctors having their applications suspended on the grounds that they were mistaken as immigrant workers.
It was a basic error - they were British citizens - one of whom has told Channel 4 News that it's now too late for her to get her first choice posting.
In an email to one Junior Doctor, a British Citizen, their Deanery said:
"Our records indicate that you would require a work permit in order to take up employment in the UK therefore, we are currently unable to progress your application.
We will consider your application for any suitable GP training programme vacancies that remain but I should point out that this is unlikely."
The Department of Health said they are investigating 26 applications on a case by case basis .to establish how many of these are "genuine errors."
Twenty three thousand specialist training posts in the NHS have to be filled by the 1st August.
The government insists that the current programme, however controversial, will achieve that goal.
