From The Sunday Herald newspaper, 29th July 2007
Confusion over hospital posts
JUNIOR DOCTORS have warned that a botched recruitment system could impact on hospital services next week when thousands of trainee medics take up new posts.
With just days to go before the Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) programme is implemented on August 1, hundreds of junior doctors across the country are moving to jobs which have been secured at the last minute.
It is claimed that many do not know which hospital they have been assigned to or what hours they will be working. An estimated 400 medics in Scotland have yet to find out if they have a training post at all.
Junior doctor Kevin Cormack, a spokesman for doctors’ pressure group Remedy UK, said there was concern about the impact on hospital services next week. He had heard of at least one clinic which had been cancelled: “I’ve got colleagues who are phoning to find out which hospitals they are working in, but the HR departments say they don’t know.”
The chaos is the result of the much-criticised MMC system, introduced by the Department of Health this year to centralise training and cut the time it takes junior doctors to reach consultant level.
MMC has been beset by a series of problems, including computer system crashes and accusations that the recruitment process is flawed.
In addition, around 30,000 junior medics across the UK have applied for just 22,000 specialist posts. Scottish doctors are no longer able to apply for jobs in certain hospitals or region. Instead they face being placed anywhere in the country.
Cormack said the system was tearing families apart: “I know of one doctor who has got a job in Bristol, his wife has got a job in Glasgow and they have a one-year-old daughter to look after.
“This was meant to have been avoided; there was meant to be a buddy system for doctors who were married so they could apply together and at least be assigned somewhere together. That has gone completely out the window.”
Dr Alan Robertson, the deputy chairman of the BMA’s Scottish Junior Doctors’ Committee, claimed morale was at an “all-time low”. A survey by the Royal College of Psychiatrists found that more than one in five junior doctors had contemplated suicide as a result of the stress brought on by the fiasco.
A spokeswoman for the Scottish Executive said the vast majority of training posts in Scotland had been filled. Arrangements were in place to manage vacant posts and support would be offered to junior doctors without places by August 1. There would be continuity of patient service throughout the NHS.