Hewitt U turn and apology for Doctors' MMC chaos
Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has apologised to junior doctors over the continuing recruitment crisis. A new online system for selecting doctors for training posts has been heavily criticised for failing to select the best candidates. Ms Hewitt said the scheme had caused "terrible anxiety" for junior doctors which shouldn't have happened. The government has now offered doctors one interview but the British Medical Association said it was "unacceptable".
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Hewitt said she regretted the failures in implementation of the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) reforms. "The new system of MMC I think everybody supports but the actual implementation in this first year of transition was nowhere near what it should have been."
But she still didn't accept that there were faults with the system. even though she said "The shortlisting process didn't work. We are in the process of sorting it out and we are now guaranteeing every junior doctor an interview for the speciality of their choice."
The head of MMC, Professor Alan Crockard, resigned at the weekend over the chaos caused by the introduction of the Medical Training Application Service.
"We really don't want highly qualified medical staff to be forced to leave the NHS, but if they can't complete their training in this country, it could be their only option." Dr Jo Hilborne
BMA Junior Doctors Committee.
It was designed to speed up the process for placing doctors in specialist jobs, but a catalogue of complaints have emerged. Doctors say the forms are badly worded, do not ask pertinent questions, do not allow them to set out relevant qualifications and experience, and have no facility for attaching a CV.
The result, they say, is that the best candidates are not being selected for the right jobs and has left thousands without any interview at all.
Junior doctors abandoned talks with the government's review group, saying it was "unacceptable" for more than 11,000 doctors who offered two or more interviews to now settle for just one.
Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's Junior Doctors Committee, said: "It's long overdue, but at last the government is acknowledging the huge anxiety that this shambles of a system has created.
"However, an apology isn't enough. We need a way out of this mess for the 32,000 junior doctors who currently don't know if they have posts to go to in August."
'Fewer jobs available'
A BMA analysis has suggested that 18,518 specialist training posts are available under the new system - not 22,000-23,000 indicated by the government.
It is warning that large numbers of doctors will have no training post in August.
Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said: "Not only has the government failed to design a fair recruitment process, they've also misled everyone on the number of jobs available.
"Even if the application system improves, thousands of doctors are going to find themselves without a training post in August.
"We really don't want highly qualified medical staff to be forced to leave the NHS, but if they can't complete their training in this country, it could be their only option."
From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6521095.stm
Health Direct first warned over a year ago (6 Mar 06) that the MMC's computerised application was in meltdon in Junior Doctors' new IT MMC MTAS recruitment system is a disaster.
As it has therefore taken the labour govt a year to wake up to the IT disaster that it created, how can we be confident that it will be sorted quickly?
About as likely as John "not fit for purpose" Reid's recent spin about sending text messages to illegal immigrants asking them to kindly leave the country. How can anyone have any confidence when the labour govt doesn't know how many people there are, what their names and addresses are let alone their correct phone numbers. Pathetic.
The depth of feeling at labour's incompetence was highlighted by Health Direct on March 19, 2007 in Junior doctors recruitment MMC- this is a fight we cannot afford to lose when some 12,000 people took part in Saturday's march through central London.
That represents more than one in three junior doctors in Britain. Consider that another one in three or four was working or asleep between nightshifts, and that most doctors have not been on a march before, and you will understand the scale of the anger.
The disastrous overhaul of the way in which junior doctors are selected and trained to become consultants is the most serious threat to the patient care and the health service that we have witnessed, and the ramifications are frightening in scope.
Earlier on March 08, 2007 Health Direct posted : Labour climb down over junior doctor fiasco MMC MTAS IT system
The Labour govt backed down yesterday and agreed to an immediate review of a flawed selection system that has left thousands of able young doctors without the prospect of a job and many threatening to leave the NHS. The independent review will start today and may recommend changes to the system before the current interview round has been completed.
Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, has come under increasing pressure from within the medical profession to review the new, online system, the selection methods and the questions candidates had to answer. In some hospitals half of junior doctors did not even get interviews for posts at the next level of their training.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Ms Hewitt said she regretted the failures in implementation of the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) reforms. "The new system of MMC I think everybody supports but the actual implementation in this first year of transition was nowhere near what it should have been."
But she still didn't accept that there were faults with the system. even though she said "The shortlisting process didn't work. We are in the process of sorting it out and we are now guaranteeing every junior doctor an interview for the speciality of their choice."
The head of MMC, Professor Alan Crockard, resigned at the weekend over the chaos caused by the introduction of the Medical Training Application Service.
"We really don't want highly qualified medical staff to be forced to leave the NHS, but if they can't complete their training in this country, it could be their only option." Dr Jo Hilborne
BMA Junior Doctors Committee.
It was designed to speed up the process for placing doctors in specialist jobs, but a catalogue of complaints have emerged. Doctors say the forms are badly worded, do not ask pertinent questions, do not allow them to set out relevant qualifications and experience, and have no facility for attaching a CV.
The result, they say, is that the best candidates are not being selected for the right jobs and has left thousands without any interview at all.
Junior doctors abandoned talks with the government's review group, saying it was "unacceptable" for more than 11,000 doctors who offered two or more interviews to now settle for just one.
Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the British Medical Association's Junior Doctors Committee, said: "It's long overdue, but at last the government is acknowledging the huge anxiety that this shambles of a system has created.
"However, an apology isn't enough. We need a way out of this mess for the 32,000 junior doctors who currently don't know if they have posts to go to in August."
'Fewer jobs available'
A BMA analysis has suggested that 18,518 specialist training posts are available under the new system - not 22,000-23,000 indicated by the government.
It is warning that large numbers of doctors will have no training post in August.
Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said: "Not only has the government failed to design a fair recruitment process, they've also misled everyone on the number of jobs available.
"Even if the application system improves, thousands of doctors are going to find themselves without a training post in August.
"We really don't want highly qualified medical staff to be forced to leave the NHS, but if they can't complete their training in this country, it could be their only option."
From:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6521095.stm
Health Direct first warned over a year ago (6 Mar 06) that the MMC's computerised application was in meltdon in Junior Doctors' new IT MMC MTAS recruitment system is a disaster.
As it has therefore taken the labour govt a year to wake up to the IT disaster that it created, how can we be confident that it will be sorted quickly?
About as likely as John "not fit for purpose" Reid's recent spin about sending text messages to illegal immigrants asking them to kindly leave the country. How can anyone have any confidence when the labour govt doesn't know how many people there are, what their names and addresses are let alone their correct phone numbers. Pathetic.
The depth of feeling at labour's incompetence was highlighted by Health Direct on March 19, 2007 in Junior doctors recruitment MMC- this is a fight we cannot afford to lose when some 12,000 people took part in Saturday's march through central London.
That represents more than one in three junior doctors in Britain. Consider that another one in three or four was working or asleep between nightshifts, and that most doctors have not been on a march before, and you will understand the scale of the anger.
The disastrous overhaul of the way in which junior doctors are selected and trained to become consultants is the most serious threat to the patient care and the health service that we have witnessed, and the ramifications are frightening in scope.
Earlier on March 08, 2007 Health Direct posted : Labour climb down over junior doctor fiasco MMC MTAS IT system
The Labour govt backed down yesterday and agreed to an immediate review of a flawed selection system that has left thousands of able young doctors without the prospect of a job and many threatening to leave the NHS. The independent review will start today and may recommend changes to the system before the current interview round has been completed.
Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, has come under increasing pressure from within the medical profession to review the new, online system, the selection methods and the questions candidates had to answer. In some hospitals half of junior doctors did not even get interviews for posts at the next level of their training.
Labels: BMA, health direct, IT disaster, MMC, Patricia Hewitt
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