Young doctors (letters)
From Mmc
The Times (letters) 21 March 07
Sir, The debacle over the new MTAS (Medical Training Application Service) appointments system continues and, despite promise of a review, we have grave reservations that MTAS will ever be fit for purpose. Points are awarded for personal statements that do little to discriminate between candidates and do not provide objective evidence of a candidate’s ability.
The Department of Health seems to be bent on undermining the medical profession and downgrading academic ability — one of the best predictors of whether an individual will succeed in medicine. And the outcome? A shambles. Experienced selectors found it virtually impossible to use the information on the new forms to distinguish between candidates. We all know of able young doctors who have been offered no interviews.
Progression in medicine has always been competitive. We have always faced difficult decisions when selecting doctors for specialist training. The previous system was not perfect, but criteria such as clinical experience and academic achievements were used to inform decisions about selecting for interview. We find it difficult to believe that boxes of free text will ever provide enough objective evidence to rank candidates fairly.
We support the statements of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, Royal Colleges and BMA. We urge the Department of Health to listen to doctors and to invite the royal colleges to produce an alternative system that is acceptable, transparent and, above all, valid. The NHS needs our talented young doctors and they deserve far better than MTAS.
DR SUSAN BURGE, President, British Association of Dermatologists
PROFESSOR CHRIS BUNKER, Chair, Specialty Advisory Committee, Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board
DR DAVID EEDY, Editor, British Journal of Dermatology
Sir, Recently 1,000 lawyers protested outside Parliament against reforms to the legal aid system. On March 17 12,000 junior doctors marched through the streets of London.
To judge by the media coverage of this unprecedented event, the general public would be forgiven for not fully understanding the threat that Modernising Medical Careers poses to patient safety.
Maybe the lawyers captured the attention of the media because many of them have been working to rule since last year. What do we doctors need to do to get our message across?
DR GEORGE BOSTOCK, Truro, Cornwall
