Cancelled theatre lists, disappearing training posts and confused personnel staff greeted 30,000 junior doctors on August 1st as the fallout from MTAS continues.

• “We didn’t know how many doctors to expect” - London Trust

• Trainees find jobs don’t exist or are forced to move sites

Scenes of confusion were reported by many new trainees who had secured jobs through MTAS. Some found they had been allocated different posts than issued by the deanery and were forced to relocate.
Two doctors from the London Deanery who contacted JuniorDr, including one who had travelled back from Australia, arrived to find their posts did not exist. Both were found alternative placements by the hospital trust within days.

Locum cover

Locum agencies were put on standby to cover any potential gaps in clinical care as many trusts were uncertain about enough doctors arriving to deliver a full clinical service.
“We’re pretty clued up on what’s happening and we still weren’t sure how many doctors we’d have on the first day,” the medical personnel department of one inner London trust said.
“I dread to think of the shock and surprise in some other trusts when they realise who will or won’t be turning up.”

Surgical cancellations

National newspapers carried stories of cancelled theatre lists with consultants claiming they couldn’t guarantee staff. Hospitals contacted by JuniorDr denied any addtional disruption occured to elective lists.
This included Barts and the London NHS Trust who was widely reported in the press to have axed three whole days of elective theatre lists for some specialities but told us the cancellations were normal:
“As with previous junior doctor induction periods, the Trust reduced the number of non-urgent operations and non-urgent outpatient appointments taking place to ensure the smooth induction and enable enough additional senior staff to be available to help prepare junior doctors for their new roles,” the trust stated.
“This year the induction process lasted three days rather than one because of the number of new junior doctors (500) starting at the Trust’s hospitals - The Royal London, Barts and The London Chest,” said a spokesperson for the trust.”

Nonsensical

The Department of Health reports 1,000 posts remained unfilled as of August 1st. Most will be during a second round of recruitment in October.
“The situation is completely nonsensical,” said Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee. Doctors have been facing the real possibility of unemployment, but at the same time, trusts are cancelling operations. There has been appalling confusion in the NHS over the last few weeks. No-one knows what’s going on.”
“The whole recruitment process this year has been an unmitigated disaster. The medical profession is fighting to make sure it never happens again,” he said.

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written by Robert , 08 September, 2007

I agree the system is a mess, it always has been but people shouldn't complain too much. At least they have jobs. I'm still sending in my CVs. PS - I was employed in the UK prior to MTAS.

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written by icmedic , 08 September, 2007

yeap, well i left to become a teacher. good decision based on what my friends have said.

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