Doctors in standards drop fear
Updated on 20 July 2007
Nine out of 10 doctors fear current medical training reforms and cuts in hours will cause standards to fall, a survey has found.
The British Medical Association (BMA) questioned more than 2,200 doctors across the UK for their views on the Government's overhaul of training.
Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) is designed to cut the length of time it takes to qualify as a consultant. But doctors have expressed fears that the reforms will result in important skills being missed out of training.
Nine out of 10 (89%) doctors questioned by the BMA disagreed with the statement: "Doctors will be trained to the required standard for an NHS consultant despite the reduction in training hours under MMC." And 81% said it would be unacceptable if a "sub-consultant" grade of doctor emerged from the reforms. Of junior doctors questioned, around 70% said the creation of a sub-consultant grade would be detrimental to patients.
The BMA is giving oral evidence to Sir John Tooke as part of his independent review of MMC. That followed the chaos surrounding junior doctor training resulting from he Medical Training Application Service (MTAS), the online application system for MMC.
Of doctors surveyed, 87% said that traditional CVs should be used to apply for specialist training, as is now happening with round two of the process. More than six in 10 (63%) were opposed to using a national online recruitment system ever again, even if the problems with MTAS could be resolved. Seven out of 10 junior doctors said they had not received good careers advice and almost half (46%) had considered leaving the country.
Earlier this month, the Government announced that most training posts in England for junior doctors had been filled. The first round of the recruitment process led to 85% of posts being taken, the Department of Health said.
Its figures showed that almost 70% of UK graduates had got a job in round one, with more set to be appointed in round two. In England, 29,193 junior doctors have been chasing 15,600 posts. Of those applicants, 13,600 were UK graduates, of which 9,336 (almost 70%) secured a job in round one. This left 14,000 junior doctors from the UK and overseas still chasing posts in round two.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "If anything, standards of medical training will improve as a result of the implementation of Modernising Medical Careers. In order to progress and qualify, junior doctors will have to meet the required competences at all stages.
"This is a clear improvement on the previous system, in which there were no national standards, no comprehensive curricula and no regular assessment of the competences of junior doctors."
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