A suggested definition of MTAS (Medical Training Application Service) for Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) for Wikipedia1: “Appointment of doctors by lottery, plagiarism and creative writing; sacrifice of skill and track record at the altar of political correctness. Like a bad dream, consultants desert patients for days on end to read fragments of applications and interview candidates without cvs; while the juniors mind the shop until one day a website tells them their career hopes are ended—wrecked by MMC.”
This nightmare must stop. It is self indulgent to scream and rage, because time is now pressing2; but junior doctors must know that consultants are, at last, roused by their fate. We need facts and action. How many UK graduates were not shortlisted? How many places will remain in the second round? How many juniors of distinction, deserving their first choice career, will be sacrificed if interviews of a more fortunate majority are not aborted?
Our leaders have pressed MMC and ministers hard for changes before the second round. Will politicians deliver when the news agenda has moved on? We fear movement of the deckchair variety, and that something titanic will hit the profession if MTAS is not removed or reinvented altogether. Thirty five thousand applicants—and the new UK medical schools have yet to produce a doctor.
It is time for the mass of consultants to find voice. Please register your views at http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/people/mjb14. You decide whether we call for a temporary halt, a back-to-the-drawing-board halt, or complete resignation of the architects of MMC. We are not against change or modernisation. We are passionate about quality, rigour, and humanity.
Competing interests: None declared.
On behalf of 25 senior consultants listed at www.bmj.com/cgi/eletters/333/7579/0-f#161670
References
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernising_Medical_Careers
- et al. BMJ. 2006;333:0. [Google Scholar]