NHS training boss reported to GMC

From Mmc

NHS training boss reported to GMC

By Celia Hall, Medical Editor Last Updated: 2:53am BST 30/03/2007

The senior surgeon who has presided over the system for appointing junior doctors has been reported to the General Medical Council (GMC).

Prof Alan Crockard, an eminent neurosurgeon, has been the national director of the Department of Health's programme, Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) and its online application service, the Medical Training and Application Service (MTAS), since 2004.

Both systems have recently been heavily criticised as they have left thousands of qualified young doctors without job interviews.

Earlier this week, Lindsay Cooke, who founded Mums4Medics - a family support group for people caught up in the jobs fiasco, wrote to the GMC naming Prof Crockard as he was "ultimately responsible" for the MMC and its implementation.

"I respectfully ask the GMC to examine the conduct of Prof Crockard in this matter and, if it is found wanting, to consider disciplinary action," she wrote. Mrs Cooke, whose daughter Dr Clare Cooke, 28, has decided to work in New Zealand, said: "I have nothing against Prof Crockard personally but he needs to take responsibility for this. The GMC does have jurisdiction even when the doctor's role is in management."

A spokesman for the GMC said: "We review all complaints carefully to see if there are issues that need to be investigated. We do not comment on individual cases."

The Department of Health said that they had no comment to make on the letter to the GMC regarding Prof Crockard.

• Senior doctors at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital have joined the calls for the MMC and MTAS to be scrapped, saying that 40 per cent of their "most talented" junior doctors had been overlooked. back our doctors