Several months ago I wrote to The Herald expressing the concerns of many junior doctors regarding the changes to our training under Modernising Medical Careers (MMC). One of my points was the lack of confidence we had in the computerised application system, MTAS.
The chief medical officer, Dr Harry Burns, in reply, essentially dismissed my fears and claimed that the system would be rigorously tested before being launched.
As you reported on February 28, precisely the shambles I predicted has occurred. The applications system relied heavily on 150-word answers to questions dreamed up by a team of psychologists, and put little emphasis on prior experience, postgraduate qualifications, research and audit. This system will select doctors not on the basis of their clinical ability but their skill at creative writing. It is illuminating that two specialties in Scotland (anaesthesia and emergency medicine) have found the forms so useless that they are simply interviewing all applicants.
The process of application via MTAS has been chaotic from the start, with frequent delays, poor security, applications being directed to incorrect specialties and the use of untrained assessors. The results have been devastating, with many good doctors not securing a single interview, despite having CVs which have passed muster for training applications under the old system.
It saddens me that, despite the warnings and public expression of disquiet from many doctors last year, the department of Health ploughed on. Sadly, it is the junior-doctor victims of this who reap the whirlwind sown by others.
Dr Andrew Conway Morris, Centre for Inflammation Research, University of Edinburgh.
THOSE who believe that the independent sector does not have a detrimental effect on staffing of the NHS need to consider the following: we recently offered a consultant surgeon's post to a candidate after interview, who was eminently suitable and had expressed considerable interest in the post during the preceding few months. He asked for 24 hours to consider it, as he was going for an interview with an Independent Treatment Centre in England. He accepted the job there and we were left to speculate as to why. More money? Easier workload? From speaking to him beforehand, I don't think it was the job satisfaction that attracted him. The Independent Treatment Centres have to get their staff from somewhere.
David Sedgwick, Consultant Surgeon, Belford Hospital, Fort William.
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