These are dire days for young doctors
From Mmc
These are dire days for young doctors
Sir: Great concern has been expressed recently about the new application process for junior doctors to enter specialty training. Up to 8,000 doctors face the prospect of unemployment after August 2007. Even for those doctors who are successful, there are potential problems.
Junior doctors are at a stage in their lives when they are forming permanent relationships or already have families. We have heard recently of a London medical student whose husband has been short-listed for only one job, which is in Birmingham. Should he be successful, the couple face two years apart.
We also know of a junior doctor applying for a job on a "London rotation" who could end up in Bognor Regis. How is this compatible with maintaining a satisfactory relationship, unless her partner also happens to have a job near Bognor Regis? These stories are repeated all over the country and are causing anguish and distress to countless junior doctors.
The Medical Women's Federation, which is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year, would like to ensure that, in the review of the application process for the second round of interviews, the personal circumstances of the doctors are taken into account. Many doctors marry other doctors, and it is unacceptable that couples are forced to be separated for several years because of deficiencies in the application process.
DR CLARISSA FABRE
HONORARY SECRETARY, MEDICAL WOMEN'S FEDERATION, LONDON WC1
Sir: Morris Brown and his colleagues should be respected for their view that the present selection process must be abandoned (letter, 17 March); the alternative suggested - that 50 per cent of posts will be kept vacant for a validated second round of appointments - is too kind to the architects of the Medical Training Application Service.
It is illogical to allow the first 50 per cent of posts to be filled by a system which has completely failed to live up to a stated objective of being "fair and transparent". That the Department of Health and Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) group acknowledged sufficient failings to warrant an "independent" enquiry, and to state that significant changes would be needed before round two, surely suggests that it can not be intellectually correct, or morally justifiable, to pursue a round one so riddled with flaws.
The desperation of the administrators of the medical establishment (the deaneries, and even the Medical Royal Colleges) to force this round to continue are such that very thinly veiled threats are being issued to some consultants in an effort to stop them from heeding their conscience and withdrawing from interviewing. Last week, 10,000 doctors - consultants and juniors - marched in central London in protest at these changes. Their protest is not simply about the lack of validity, fairness and transparency of the MTAS process; it is about the dumbing down of the medical profession to suit political whim.
It is obvious to all doctors that shortened training (approximately 7,000 hours vs 34,000 hours) between graduation and "completion of training" will produce less-experienced and less-able doctors. Medicine is, and always has been, a skilled and challenging apprenticeship.
It is equally obvious that introducing a recruitment system that is so flawed it has been likened to a lottery is likely to drive experienced junior staff to look overseas for the training opportunities that are denied them in the UK. I doubt that they will return to take up sub-consultant posts in a dumbed-down, demoralised and run-down NHS.
The damage being done by the rushed and ruthless introduction of MMC, despite increasingly obvious and severe failings, is irreparable.
If the Government truly wants a great health service, they have to halt the MTAS process immediately, before we lose 8,000 qualified and experienced doctors to the Antipodes or alternative careers.
SARAH SPENCER
CONSULTANT IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE.PONTYCLUN, SOUTH WALES
Sir: The new application arrangements for junior doctors have caused deep distress. But there is a wider context. Other professionals have had to be flexible and mobile for years.
I was not always a parish priest. Nearly 40 years ago, I began to sink all my energies into long and difficult preparation for a different, highly specialised and not very remunerative career. I accepted, as we all had to accept, that the odds were against it. We took the chance because we believed in what we were doing. If it paid off, we rejoiced. If it didn't, we swallowed our disappointment and went to do something different. Medical staff may like to consider two further things. First, golden roads seem to be things of the past for professionals everywhere, especially where public money is concerned. Second, and perhaps more importantly, medical staff have no monopoly of long hours, heavy burdens and concerns about their career; or even of life and death decisions.
There are many ways of serving humanity. In realising this, they will find themselves in good and supportive company.
THE REV DR JOHN THEWLIS
CARSHALTON, SURREY
