Britain has ordered an immediate review of the selection system that has left thousands of young doctors, including Indians, without the prospect of a job.
LONDON: Bowing to pressure from medical organisations, Britain has ordered an immediate review of the "flawed" selection system that has left thousands of young doctors, including Indians, without the prospect of a job.
The independent review will start on Wednesday and may recommend change in the system before the current interview round has been completed.
The review will be led by Prof Neil Douglas, vice president of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and president of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.
Patricia Hewitt, Health Secretary has come under increasing pressure from within the medical profession to review the new online system, selection methods and questions candidates had to answer. Last month, a new guideline was issued saying "only those doctors who have a visa to work beyond August 1, 2007 will be considered for recruitment in MMC."
In some hospitals, half of junior doctors did not even get interviews for posts at the next level of their training.
Concerns about the Medical Training Application Service, (MTAS), which was introduced in January, came to a head at the weekend.
On Monday night, Hewitt met members of the Academy. She agreed that the review should take place and that the Academy representing 14 royal colleges, would lead it.
The decision gives back to the royal colleges, powers they lost over regulation of specialist medical training, when Modernizing Medical Careers, the new training scheme for hospital registrars, was introduced.
Prof Dame Carol Black, the academy president said, "The academy welcomes the decision to carry out an immediate review of the Medical Training Application Service.
"Shortcomings in this critical element of the Modernising Medical Careers have caused dismay and much distress. We will work with the department to ensure action is taken to remedy faults and to restore confidence," Black said.
The senior doctors have been given the power to identify what action is needed and when it should be taken -- either before the end of the current round or before the start of the next round of job applications at the end of next month.
The government has promised that there will be enough jobs for British-trained graduates but there were 30,000 applications for 22,000 posts.
Not only the shortfall, but the caliber of those rejected has caused a furore. A number of doctors said they are considering emigrating to Australia or leaving the profession altogether.
Consultants who expected trainees to walk into new jobs were appalled. In the West Midlands, consultant surgeons said they would not interview the short-listed applicants because of their concerns that the system had not been fair.
However, the Department of Health said it "would be irresponsible to halt the interview process at this late stage".
It would create anxiety and uncertainty for those doctors already offered interviews and would result in empty hospital posts in August.
It said the review would deduce what has gone wrong in round one so that changes to the system could be made in time for a second round of interviews beginning on April 28.
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