The MMC wolf needs to be stripped naked

This is quoted from the shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley MP from last week's debate:"The principle of modernising medical careers is accepted and we also accept many of the principles in the documents of 2002 and 2004 that led to it. We should not rely on doctors in training for service delivery and training must be limited in time. It cannot be open-ended. As Sir Liam Donaldson said in his

More from our special friends

There is yet more invigorating news from our favourite combo, MTAS and DoH; they have released another statement today:"This may delay the resumption of the service and may potentially cause delay to the interview schedule. We are sorry for this and will work as hard as we can to reinstate the service as quickly as possible."The 'minimal impact' that Lord Hunt claimed and the 'up and running by

'Absolute nonsense'

Click on the Sky News logo to watch a rather enjoyable interview with Patricia Hewitt getting a rather vigorous grilling from Adam Boulton. Hewitt tried the 'absolute nonsense' line for the umpteenth time and it did rather rebound in her face.It is interesting that she mentioned the word 'doctor' so many times, it seems rather coincidental that these decisions as regards not treating smoking/

Votes, elections and the remedy

Votes and elections form an important part of the democratic process, and if this area becomes corrupt then it has the potential to undermine the whole democratic process. No wonder Labour keep trying to fiddle with votes, it seems they are it again. An undercover investigation has shown examples of blatant corruption, I just wonder how widespread this kind of activity is? There was illegal

Remedy Uk - Summary of grounds for judicial review

For anyone who wants to read the summary of the grounds for a judicial review by Remedy Uk:A judicial review has been applied for in the Administrative Court between Legal Remedy (the Claimant) and the Secretary of State for Health (the Defendant). PMETB, CoPMED, the BMA and NACT have been named as interested parties.Papers were lodged with the Administrative Court at the beginning of this week.

The ferret is fursty

It's been a busy week for the ferrets, it started with them scouting out the House of Parliament before the MMC debate:They then tried to get between Tony Blair and the microphone:Unfortunately some were captured and tortured by the MMC team:They did manage to escape from their tighly guarded cells:All that activity has made them very thirsty ferrets indeed:

No evil?

The DoH has again stonewalled a Freedom of Information request concerning Dame Carol Black:"You ask about Dame Carol’s appointment as the National Director for Health and Work. Specifically, you ask for information about “discussions between senior DOH officials, Dame Carol, government ministers, advisers concerning her role, future role and any terms and conditions of her employment. I can

These physicians have balls!

The following letter has been written by the Worthing Hospital Royal College of Physicians College Tutor and Colleagues to the KSS Dean and Lead for Core Medical Training on 25th April 2007:"I am writing from the physicians as a whole here at Worthing. Following our recent letter about the review process, MTAS and implementation of MMC we have been waiting as many others have for more information

Surgeons have bigger balls?

The president of the Royal College of Surgeons has written to his members:"To Members and Fellows of The Royal College of Surgeons of EnglandThe review Group met again on Wednesday 25th April and I am writing to give you an update on the present position.You will recall that I put to an earlier meeting, a proposed scheme to enable those who are able, but are not successful in securing a ST3 post

The Sun - a pillar of our fine democracy

I was mincing around on the Internet this afternoon and ended up on the Sun's discussion boards; Kelvin Mckenzie had written an incredibly ill informed piece yesterday:"'I am sick and tired of listening to junior doctors complaining about their job prospects. It's a tough and competitive world out there and the public might be a little more supportive to these gods in white coats if there were

More lies from MTAS

It was bad enough that last night MTAS tried to pretend that their site had been closed for 'planned essential maintenance work', they backed down from this pretty sharpish as even they have some degree of shame. However their website still shows the evidence of their lies as above.MTAS have sent out the following statement today:"Specialty and GP applicants have not been affected by these

'Independent' my arse

It has been learnt that Sir John Tooke, the man given the job of heading the 'independent' review of MMC and MTAS, was closely involved in the drawing up of MMC from the very beginning! He was a member of the MMC Academic Medicine Committee which was meant to have 'consulted widely with stakeholders to harness as broad a range of ideas as possible'. What a great job they did, the stakeholders

Department of Health - d'oh for short

Channel 4 covered the latest MTAS breach very thoroughly indeed last night; they even ran an additional story that told of more shoddy government IT security which had leaked the personal details of doctors onto the Internet, this involved a Connecting for Health project run by the eternally bungling Richard Granger.On the latest MTAS leaks Lord Hunt was quoted as 'it is outrageous that someone

Letter to the CMO

Following on from the DoH's refusal to disclose vital information that would reveal the real motives behind MMC and the sub consultant grade, a letter has been written to the Chief Medical Officer."Dear Sir Liam Donaldson,I am writing as regards FOI request 'Our ref: 2800R' which has been refused following an internal review at the Department of Health.The Freedom of Information request is about

The metastatic NHS Employers

On the issue of trust for our esteemed politicians and quangos, given the recent lies from MTAS claiming that their website was down as a result of 'planned essential maintenance'; can we believe anything that comes from this government are any of its associated agencies? I will argue that we certainly cannot believe much that comes from the lips of NHS Employers.NHS Employers released a '

Amazing MTAS - even greater depths plumbed

Dr Crippen has been emailed by a junior doctor who incredibly has found another glaring security fault in MTAS, you would thought that following yesterday's blunders the numpties would have made sure that all the personal information was secure by now, wouldn't you?But no, there are still gaping holes in their security.Any candidate can easily access another candidates personal emails by simply

Indefensible

The appalling security breach by MTAS, that has left copious amounts of personal information regarding young doctors open to access by anyone with access to the Internet, is as flagrant breach of the Data protection act as is humanly possible. Junior doctors can expect certain rights to be respected under this act:"(iii) The right to take steps to prevent your personal data being processed if the

Channel 4 shocker

An astounding revelation on the Channel 4 news revealed that there was 'new evidence of incompetence that will shock medics across the country'.MTAS (medical training application service) was demonstrated to be insecure from at least 9am 25/4/2007. This meant that extremely personal data including criminal records, sexual preferences, phone numbers, addresses and more were all accessible on line

On the record

I have decided to sift through Hansard from the MMC debate yesterday and summarise the most important quotes which must not be forgotten. There are some rather revealing admissions and statements, and the exposure must be exploited if the 'patient safety danger' MMC is to be stopped:Patricia Hewitt 'Those problems should not have arisen'Quite right for once. They should not have.Hewitt 'we have

The parliamentary debate on MMC

The issue of Modernising Medical Careers was debated in the House of Commons today. In summary the opposition gave the government an absolute roasting on the rank incompetence that had been exhibited with their management of medical training. Patricia Hewitt and Labour offered the same old lame defences, and amazingly tried to claim credit for trying to remedy the 'teething problems'. Incredibly

Thinking blogger

Many thanks to Dr Rant for listing the fancier as one of the five blogs that make him think (six if we're honest and good at maths).These are the rules:1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think.2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the

The remedy mass lobby

The grass roots organisation representing junior doctors Remedy UK has organised a mass lobby of parliament today, today is also the day on which MPs are due to have a debate on Modernising Medical Careers (MMC). This government is trying to wreck medical training. It is another prong in their multi-faceted assault upon the autonomy of the medical profession. The public need to realise that the

The mass exodus begins

Modernising Medical Careers is being debated in the House of Commons tomorrow, unfortunately any potential action on this front has come too late for some. There is already a considerable human cost as a result of the government's shambolic reforms of medical training and the NHS is general. The following letter was sent from one junior doctor to another in the last few days, I believe it gets

Utter balls

Patricia Hewitt answered a few readers questions in the Independent today, it was a rare 'public outing' for the much maligned minister; you'd think she was hiding from the public given her low profile these days, can't think why that might be. Here are a few golden nuggets that I have extracted from her words:"Thousands of people at risk of a heart attack are alive and well today because of the

MTAS 'choices' deadline

Current Order Level Specialty UoA Change Choice Order Wage Work permit needed FTSTA only 1 ST45 Unemployed flexible Dole UK residency required to scrounge 2

No evidence behind quacks - D'oH

Following yet more badgering via the Freedom of Information act, further light has been shed on the scanty evidence base upon which government reform is based.It seems that everyone one turns these days there is some kind of untrained monkey being handed more responsibility while the service is being stripped of the properly trained professionals. It is happening in the health service with nurse

MTAS/MMC- fill this in NOW

Please click here to take part in this questionnaire and forward it onto anyone you know, it is vital that as many people as possible get their opinion in.

MTAS 'independent' review - muck unearthed

Following a Freedom of Information request to our dictators at the DoH, a reply as regards the MTAS review panel has been received:"You asked who appointed the review group panel. I can confirm that Clare Chapman, Director General of Workforce at the Department of Health had overall responsibility for considering who was appropriate to sit on the review group. With regards to ministerial level

Sniffing out the lies

"The hon. Gentleman refers to the prospect or the possibility of unemployment among junior doctors. Although he did not fall into this trap, let me take the opportunity to refer to the thoroughly misleading statements made in recent weeks about the prospect of thousands of junior doctors finding themselves without work. That is complete nonsense. As I said in response to points made by the hon.

More DoH rectal seepage

This is a very lengthy piece, but the fancier has it on very good authority that this document is a very recent product of the DoH:( the formatted document is here in full now, 22/4/2007)"MODERNISING MEDICAL CAREERS MAXIMISING EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIESDoctors at risk1. There is an excess of applicants for training posts over places (both programmes and fixed-term appointments) by about 10,000. If

MTAS dynamite

This has found its way into my pigeon hole and has been posted around a large number of Human Resources departments today:"Dear ColleagueThe purpose of this e-mail is to seek your assistance in the delivery of the very challenging timescales that have now been agreed by the NHS Management Board - based on recommendations from the MMC Review Group - for Round 1B of the 2007 Recruitment and

Still he remains in the trees

Following on from an earlier FOI request, the DoH has issued a 'reply' of sorts. These are the interesting chunks selectively edited out:"3. Was the possible content of the report discussed by the CMO with the prime minister, any ministers or politicians, government advisers, senior DOH officials, or corporate representatives? The CMO discussed the possible content of the report with the

Disingenuous cow

Patricia Hewitt made a statement to the House of Commons today:"With permission, Mr Speaker, I should like to make a statement on the progress we are making in relation to Modernising Medical Careers.As I explained to the House in my written statement on 27 March, the independent Review Group continued its work over the Easter recess, including two important announcements to applicants for

British Ballooney Corporation

Following another poorly researched episode of the pitiful Holby City, some junior doctors complained about nature of the program's portrayal of the new centralised job application process. Holby City ignorantly and misleadingly showed a junior doctor being offered a job while in the operating theatre with his consultant, and upon being offered the job the junior mentioned how content he was

Back in sunny blighty

The fancier has been away on Alpine slopes for the last week, trying to get away from the torture of training in the NHS by bombing down steep slopes at high speed using cognac as his source of fuel. He has returned in one piece, although a little battered and bruised, and is still feeling rather militant having switched on his lap top again.The issue of quacks has been prominent in the news

More on Tom Dolphin/BMA and MMC

A junior doctor named Tom Dolphin has been appearing in the news on a fairly regular basis of late. This chap seems to think that he represents the voice of juniors across the country. He has a history of being allied to government reform and he was the trainee representative on the London Deanery’s Modernising Medical Careers Steering Group; read here about his views on MMC. Here is one little

BMA unrepresentative and other news

This article taken from the Guardian contains quotes from Tom Dolphin, of the BMA Junior Doctor's Committee (JDC):"Dr Dolphin added: “The concerns of the profession have been ignored really for political reasons and I can’t really defend any of it and I’m not going to try. Obviously things must be pretty bad for a secretary of state to have to apologise and we are hoping things will get better,

Another HMG wolf, this one eats babies

There has been a large amount of recent attention surrounding Patricia Hewitt's push for more mothers to deliver their babies at home. Maternal mortality in the UK is up 21% in the last three years, and this is progress according to New Labour. It is nothing but shocking that 'The UK now has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in Europe, with 13 deaths per 100,000. Britain ranks below

MTAS review panel confronted at last!

An applicant forces their way into the review panel meeting.(A-applicant, H-head of the review panel, T-train worker)Applicant: 'Ello, I wish to register a complaint.(The review panel head does not respond.)Applicant: 'Ello, Miss?Head of review panel: What do you mean "miss"?A: I'm sorry, I have a cold. I wish to make a complaint!H: We're closin' for lunch.A: Never mind that, my lad. I wish to

Is the MTAS parrot dead yet?

I am sure John Cleese could come up with a very humorous sketch concerning the MTAS scheme, there is certainly no shortage of ammunition with which to attack the deeply flawed process. There is a very valid comparison to make between the Monty Python parrot and the MTAS process as both are very much dead, but there are people insisting that they are very much alive. Here is yet another nail

Absolute farce continues

The 'independent' review panel has declared its divine judgement on the MTAS process here. Their judgement is nothing but a very bad joke. One must note that the review panel has already admitted that the short listing process is next to useless. Their final fudge means that all interviews that have already taken place will stand. This means that candidates who were short listed for four

Legends speak out

This is taken from the Times letters section:"Time to junk the appointments system for doctors