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MTAS update from the BMA Junior Doctors Committee

27 March 2007

Earlier this month the Department of Health, following a meeting with representatives of the Royal Colleges, but without the BMA despite our letters to the Secretary of State in the previous week, announced the formation of the MTAS Review Group. This was set up to look at the problematic application process, following immense pressure from the BMA and various other stakeholders. After much lobbying, the BMA was admitted to meetings of the group.

Junior doctors’ frustrations with a fundamentally flawed process came to a head on March 17, when approximately 12,000 doctors and their families protested in central London and attended a rally in Glasgow. The march, organised by RemedyUK and supported by the BMA, helped to add to the mounting pressure on the Department of Health, and put the issues in the public eye.

Despite working extremely hard to find a workable and equitable solution, the Review Group recently announced their proposal for Round 1. The JDC believed strongly that this proposal does not go far enough to rectify the situation and consequently has withdrawn from the group. In view of the decision of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, the chairman of the BMA Consultants Committee will also cease his attendance at the review group meetings.

There is still not enough information in the public domain to help applicants, and the BMA will continue to communicate any new information via this website and through mass emails to members. It has been stated on the MMC website that guidance for the revised process will be published during the week commencing 2 April 2007.

At present all doctors should attend all interviews for which they are eligible to attend, and should read in detail the guidance on the MMC website. In the meantime the BMA will continue to fight for a solution which does not disadvantage those who have more than one interview, and one that will rectify the situation for those who have been unjustly overlooked.

The full text of the BMA press release of 23 March is as follows -

BMA junior doctors leave talks on recruitment system (issued Friday 23 Mar 2007)

The BMA’s Junior doctors Committee (JDC) has withdrawn from the review group trying to resolve failures of the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS). The decision was made because the latest solutions proposed in the group were unacceptable to the JDC.

Under the proposed solution doctors would be restricted to one interview. BMA research indicates that this could disadvantage over 11,000 doctors who have been offered more than one interview.*

The JDC believes there are now only two acceptable solutions – for all doctors to be interviewed for all the posts they applied to, or for the whole system to be replaced.

Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, says:

“We have worked hard with the review group to find a solution which would select the best doctors for the right jobs in a fair way. However, we cannot sign up to what has been proposed. Restricting doctors to one interview would not be acceptable to the11,000 applicants who have already been offered more than one, and would now see these opportunities taken away.

“Anything that is not fair on junior doctors will crush morale and drive many away from the NHS. We will continue to express to the government the urgency of a solution that is acceptable to 33,000 increasingly angry doctors whose careers have been jeopardised by this shambles of a system.”

In view of the decision of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, the chairman of the BMA Consultants Committee will also cease his attendance at the review group meetings.

*Note

1433 junior doctors who had applied for posts through MTAS responded to a survey on the BMA website. 526 (37%) had been offered no interviews, 388 (27%) had been offered one, and 519 (36%) had been offered two, three, or four, and would therefore lose opportunities under the review group proposals. Extrapolated on the basis of the 33,000 total MTAS applications, this would equate to 11,880. However, it is likely that the figure is higher than this as doctors with no interview offers would be most likely to respond.