dr ordinary

haven't written for a little while because on tuesday at about 3pm i received a phone call from my first choice deanery asking me to go for an interview on thursday morning. obviouslyi confirmed that i would be going straight away and selected one of only 2 slots still available, and then i started frantically trying to find somewhere to stay the night before and pack everything i needed. i knew i wouldn't have any time the next day what with starting a new job and all! great timing!

though i'm really not complaining!

started my new job which has so far been fantastic! i have a really great reg which makes things a lot more productive. i learnt loads and that was just on the first day!

went for the interview after trying to read through my portfolio and other bits and pieces. felt a lot more nervous than with my first interview. this one really flt like it was the be all and end all. the one shot chance. and sadly i'm not sure it really went all that well. it ws one of those interviews where they ask you a question, you answer it as best you can, and then they ask you again. it feels a bit strange because you have already answered the question the best you can, and explainied your thinking behind your answer...i don't know. i'm almost beyond caring to be honest. i don't have any faith at all that i'm going to get a job anyway.

once i got back home i received an email from one of our consultants informing us all of a meeting about mtas to allow time for discussion as to the best possible solution at this stage. the main outcome of the meeting was that there is no 'one solution fits all' solution to be found. some proposals involved everyone staying in their current posts until october and reverting to the old system of applications and interviews. this would totally screw over F2s because contracts end on 31st july and all of the posts have already been filled by the F1 application process. contining with the system at the moment screws over mostly those applying at ST3. some suggested giving successful applicants only one year training posts and starting the whole process again next year. but then what does everyone do about buying houses, paying mortgages, finding schools for children. how can you uproot half way across the country for one year, putting your life on hold again, only to have to do the same up-rooting in a year?

i'm so fed up with everything. i have read some of the comments from the general public following last week's question time with patricia hewitt and i feel so sad that so many people don't have any sympathy or understanding of the situation. people accusing juniors of only going into the profession because of consultant pay rises, doctors being the cause of a lot of problems within this country and how we should all get over ourselves and understand that everyone else has to compete for jobs.

don't they get that we work long unsociable hours for what amounts to an hourly rate barely above minimum wage? don't they get that we work through bank holidays and often are not allowed to take our entitled annual leave because of tight rotas. don't they get that we go home hours late pretty mch every day to ensure that there is no compromise to patient. don't they get that this whole fight, this never-ending battle is because of our concerns about patient care?

recent comments by politicians and memebers of the public suggest that we only have our interest at heart and we have forgotten aboutthe patients.

this is not true at all.

our battle is because this mess will leave thousands fewer doctors providing care within the NHS from august. our fight is because the governemnt want to reduce the amount of time it takes for us to become consultants (and earn the 'ridiculously high wages' everyone is always going on about. WE DON@T WANT THIS!!!! we want the extra years of training. the extra time to learn and perfect and experience.

NONE OF THIS IS ABOUT MONEY
NONE OF THIS IS ABOUT FEAR OF COMPETITION
NONE OF THIS IS SELFISH

IT IS FOR THE PATIENTS
IT IS FOR THE TRAINING
IT IS FOR THIS COUNTRY

why can't people understand that?

mtas appologised for the inconvenience f shutting down their stupid, incopetent, disaster zone of a website but promised that it would be up and running again for 30th april.

today is the 30th april. is the website back up? no. they have merely changed the notification on the web page so that it no longer promises being back in business by today, but instead states that they hope to resume normal service "as soon as possible."

what does that mean.

no surprises this time though. this time we knew to distrust the information and the disappoinment is therefore minimal. that is not to say that i am not drowning in frustration though. a lot of the interviews for round 1b were supposed to take place this week but obviously that is all now delayed.

and who knows how long for? most of the deaneries seem to be claiming that they haven't even had our details through to assess each individual for eligibility, so that process needs to be completed, as well as uploading interview offers, as well as organising interview slots. and all this can only happen once the titanic has been resurected.

and presumably a lot of the consultants that were due to be interviewing this week have cancelled clinics, surgeries, operations, teaching, annual leave, and now there are no interviews. so further clinics and operations etc will have to be cancelled for the new-new interviews...if this process isn't affecting patient care then i don't know what is. i'm terrified as to what has to happen before anyone takes serious note of the disasterous effect this is having.

and who knows what effect this delay is going to have on the ever-changing date given for our job offers? a week delay in the delayed interview process probably translates to a month delay in job offers, giving us all about 3 weeks to upsticks and move across the country - if we even have a job to go to...

MTAS is still down. and is likely to be until at least monday - if MTAS are to be believed. which, if we are to rely on recent events, they should not be.

we can't see if we have been invited for interviews, we can't book interview slots, we can't organise time off for interviews, which means appropriate cover cannot be organised, which is BAD FOR PATIENTS! we also cannot make travel arrangements or hotel bookings as nothing is confirmed.

the deaneries seem to be as much in the dark as we are. they are unable to access our forms, unable to check eligibility and therefore unable to finalise interview arrangements - most of which were supposed to take place next week!

so, yet more delays. and more sighs of exasperation.

and more lies.

MTAS was closed down almost as soon as the security breaches came to light. the tried to say it has only affected the fifth year students applying for their frist jobs - an excellent introduction to the NHS i think you wil agree. and they tried to say the lapse had only occurred for a short time. it has since come to light that the information has been open for all to see snce at least monday - if not for the whole time MTAS has been up and running.

we were also told that the equal opportunities forms would not be looked at in conjunction with the rest of our forms. now it turns out all of our data has been kept together on a big spreadsheet which was compiled specifically for the purpose of employment checks. disgraceful.

the disaster unravels further. at least the press are taking more of an interest now. i especially commend channel 4 for their coverage. the BBC have been a disgrace and the little tiny time they have given to the story has been littered with false information. makes you wonder how much of the news you can believe at all.

i look forward to question time next week with patsy - it's about bloody time she appeared for comment. it's about bloody time the woman admitted defeat and resigned - along with her precious MTAS.

and i thought i was lost for words before...

despite all the problems with breaches of confidentiality yesterday there have been further breaches today. how is that possible?

what's more, it has come to light that all of our personal details have been available since at least monday at 5am. at least.

and it is possible for people to easily hack into every individuals application AND MAKE CHANGES!!!

unbelievable doesn't really cover it.

and now the DoH has shut MTAS down - initially claiming they were doing planned work but then later admitting that they were beginning an investigation into the breaches of confidentiality.

that's all very well but how the hell are we now supposed to find out about and sign up for interviews? a lot of them are scheduled for next week. anyone thought of that?

this is without question the biggest disaster to affect medics EVER.

you couldn't make this stuff up...

good grief.

words actually fail me.

how can this ridiculous farce have got any worse? for those of you who haven't heard the latest blunder in this fiasco that calls itself MTAS is that the personal details of every single fifth year medical student in the country were available for all to see for at least 8 hours yesterday.

and i mean personal details. not only could anyone read their answers to the application form answers but their names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses could all be viewed. and that is to say nothing of their nationality, sexuality and conviction history.

imagine if a doctor breached the confidentiality of a single patient in this way. even if it was an accident. they would be struck of immediately, without question. so who will take responsibility for this disaster. this serious breach of confidentiality and right to privacy?

and all this has happened despite previous concerns about the security of the MTAS system and how many people were being given access to private and personal details of applicants across the country.

who knows who has managed to get their hands on this information.

patsy, when are you going to resign?

seriously.

more things going wrong? is that even possible? i didn't write over the weekend because it was judgment day(s). the time allocated - sensibly over a weekend of course when no-one in the world was at work or available to give help - for us to rearrange our preferences, work out the best possible way tho play the system, and hopefully secure an interview.

now that the lords of MTAS have decided that everyone is to have at least one interview, guarenteed in their first choice deanery/specialty it was then decided that before these were offered us lowly applicants should have the chance to reorganise the order of our preferences on our application forms, because, it was argued that with the chance of only one interview we may change our minds and want to put a seemingly less popular deanery or specialty choice as our first choice to try and maximise the chances of getting a job.

the other name for all of this is gambling.

so, i decided not to change my preferences. i had been lucky enough to have an interview in my second choice place, and leaving things as they should be should hopefully mean i get offered an interview in my first choice place. i say hopefully because one thing we have all learned by now is not to trust the system.

so far it seems to have gone alright for me. but i keep hearing utter distaster stories from other people who have had interviews and have now been told that after reconsideration they are not eligible for the post and the interview (that they have already had has been withdrawn), other people who have already had interviews and have now been told that there are no vacanices for that specialty in that deanery. what does that even mean? there are no medical jobs in a whole deanery? that they have already allocated all the jobs and are not offering further interviews? or is it just another mistake within this vast catalogue of errors?

and some people who have applied for one specialty in four areas have been told that they are eligible for some of the areas but not others. how is this possible? eligibilty criteria are as follows: 1) full GMC registration, 2) able to work in the UK and 3) meets person specifications requirements. how can one individual be considered eligible in one place and not another?

and why can't individuals in that situation be told which aspect of the eligibility criteria they do not meet. perhaps there has been a simple error that could be rectified in time.

how can the eligibility criteria be so complex and ambiguous?

how can the government have got this so wrong?

once upon a time there was a magical baby called barry who was destined for great magical medical things. his parents were dead and he lived in the cupboard under the stairs at his evil uncle's house. soon after finishing school he began to recieve magical letters from a power above that called itself UCAS, inviting barry to train in the art of potions and wizardry in the finest medical establishments in the nation.

after buying supplies and taking a mysterious train he arrived at bogwarts medical school where only the finest doctors are invited to attend and he began his magical training. the first step in his learning was initiation with the sorting hat; a magical hat that determines which specialty an individual is most sorted for. the ceremony began. some of barry's friends were sorted to gp, dermaholiday, orthopaedics (yuk). barry was sorted to paediatics and so his future was determined.

or so he thought.

as term began barry encountered an evil presence at the medical school; professor snhewitt. barry could tell that professor snhewitt hated him and all the other students, with the exception of draco crockard who became an instant teacher's pet.

one evening a large and ugly troll known to his friends and enemies as MrTAS broke into the building and started smashing up years of history, tradition, dedication and perseverance. professor snhewitt locked up all the students in an internet chatroom so they could not fight against the destruction, but barry managed to escape and with the help of his friends remedy and you-k they defeated the evil MrTAS (well, sort of.)

later, barry and his friends hear of a sacred stone that embodies the traditions and principles of the world's most highly regarded medical training system. the sacred stone is being guarded by a two-faced bitch (dog) called BeeMA. luckily for barry this dog is lazy, stupid and useless and it falls asleep at the key moment, allowing barry and his friends to sneak by.

beyond the useless dog lay 3 mysterious and complex tasks that barry had to complete in order to find his way to the sacred stone. the first involved creating a thousand stories, each of no more than 150 words. the requirements of these stories were that they made no sense and gave no indication of intelligence or skill within their creation. the second was an internet battle with MrTAS's computer war-lords who fought to stop any useful transfer of intelligent, useful information by any means possible. the third, and the most difficult of these mysterious tasks was a round of quinterviews. a complex wizard game of interactions lasting no more than 10 minutes, taking place all over the nation, sometimes at the same time and many miles from the safety and comfort of bogwarts.

after completing these three impossible and ever-changing challenges (talk about moving goalposts) the final battle was to commence. barry found himself face to face with professor douglas (who was little known in the story until this late stage). during the violent struggle it became apparent that professor douglas, who had previously pretended to be allied with barry, was infact only trying to locate the sacred stone that embodied all that is good about the NHS in order to destroy it himself!

and the reason for this unbelievable betrayal? professor douglas was infact voldeMMCmort!!!! a struggle follows as barry, remedy and you-K fight for justice, fairness and sense (as well as tradition, principle and the maintenance of appropriate standards of medical training). luckily, just before all is lost, dumbledore arrives and saves the day. there is a huge banquet celebrating this fantastic victory and peace is restored.

they all lived happily ever after, where they wanted to, pursuing career paths that had been determined by the sorting hat, on their way to becoming the best doctors the world has ever seen.

it's a nice idea. now all we need is our dumbledore. any ideas anyone?

and so the uncertainty continues.

it just seems to go on and on. with no real progress, no real change and, it seems, no chance of any kind of future.

so, we were told on the 4th april that we would now have an opportunity to have an interview in our first choice deanery/specialty either based on our original choice or an amendment. not the greatest news, but i guess something at least.

i don't understand why we have to wait until 20th april to confirm our original choices or to amend our preferences. everyone had a fair idea that the review group were going to suggest something along those lines and most people i know had made their mind up before the review group even made their announcement whether they were going to change preferences or not. and that was before we even knew that our pevious interview(s) would count. so why do we have to wait so long? i admit, i am no technology boff, by any stretch of the imagination, but surely the technology can't be that hard?

morale is already so low and having to wait weeks to confirm a decision that is already made just drags out this painful process further. and then imagine, after the 23rd (the deadline for making the decision everyone has already made) the lords of mtas will have an idea how many interviews need to be organised, and it will probably take weeks to organise the interview timetables and the internet signing-up-for-interview-technology, that will all probably go wrong, there will be another delay in the interview process, a subsequent delay in the proposed allocation of jobs, ad before we know it, it's august and not only are there no junior doctors employed in the nhs, mental health services across the country eill be over-run by junior doctors needing treatment for nervous breakdowns and mtas-related psychosis.

i'm not even joking. occupational health has never had so many junior doctors through its doors. mtas is evil. it needs to be stopped here and now. before further delays, further smudges to the system, more modifications and rule changes. the whole things a distaster, and from this point: 'things can only get'...worse.

disillusioned? much.

who knows what to do?

i will admit to feeling some relief when the review announcement was made. relieved that i would have an opportunity to have an interview in my first choice deanery and also relieved that the interview i have already had would still count for something.

but the situation is still absolutely ridiculous. the whole point of this bloddy thing in the first place was to ensure a fair, unbiased, reproducible national application system. now we are looking at a situation where the shortlisting process was judged so flawed it could not be relied upon, and yet we are still relying on it at this stage. scotland and wales have opted out. specialties within deaneries are opting out (the latest seems to be neuro in the south west) and the surgeons are creating some kind of temporary training posts.

so, not really a fair, national system then.

and not one that can be reproduced. i bloody hope not anyway.

some people will have four interviews and therefore four chances of being offered a job. others will have one shot. and that really is literally one shot because it is looking less and less likely that there will be a round 2. or if there is it will be tiny. people will be offered jobs in the first round even if they may not be the perfect candidate because trusts and consultants will need their junior posts filled by august. who will really take the risk of rejecting an ok candidate in the hope that someone amazing will come along in round 2 which might not actually happen? i just can't see it happening like that.

and i'm normally a pretty optimistic person.

this is just getting so hard. at every corner i have hope that this time it willbe put right. then there are changes - changes that make the system more unfair and disadvantage and alienate a whole other sub-group of junior doctor. and so we fight again. and so on and so forth.

is it too late? has it gone too far to put this mess right? i would like to think not. and i would like to thank remedyuk for their unbelievable efforts and fight. thank goodness for them. imagine if we had had to rely on the BMA for anything.

my eyes grow weary and my fingers are cramped from keeping them crossed for so long. i will continue to support the fight. it is after all a fight for justice, for freedom of choice and our futures. a fight for the health service in this country and therefore a fight for all my past, present and future patients. it is a fight for everyone. i just hope other people can see that too.

so, we finally heard from the review committee yesterday.

i really have mixed feelings about the results, because although the new proposals still mean that some junior doctors within the system are disadvantaged, i feel grateful that the decision has been made not to scrap the results of previous interviews.

i was one of the lucky-ish ones. i got offered one interview in my second choice deanery which was ok i guess. it wasn't an amazing interview, but neither was it a disaster. when we first heard the news that we could opt to have an interview in our first choice deanery but in doing so would have to give up any previous interviews we had had (or had been offered originally) i was stuck between a rock and a hard place. should i stick with an ok interview in a deanery where there are a fair number of jobs and the ratios were reasonable or should i gamble everything a go all out for my first choice deanery where there are far fewer jobs and despite fewer applicants there were poorer ratios.

glad i don't have to make that decision any more. i would have gambled and gone for my first choice. aim for the sky and you might hit the top of a tree and all that. but it wouldn't have been an easy thing to do.

so while i am relieved that i get to have a new interview in my original first choice as well as keeping my mark from my second choice deanery, this system is still massively flawed. now we have a system where people who applied in wales and scotland are able to have all four interviews, but people in england who were offered nothing in this first disatserous round are still drinking at the last chance saloon. one shot only. it just seems ridiculous.

though i don't want to criticise the decision too much because finding a fair and practical solution was i think an impossibility. the only fair thing to do was go back to the old system and start all over again. but nobody listened to all the concerns about mtas until it was too late for that to be considered.

it's still a waiting game. and a waiting game where the rules are changing faster than any of us can keep up with. who knows how this will turn out in the end.

i guess we have now got to try and make the best of a bad situation.