so...MTAS. Medical Training Application System.

what a disaster. i think everything that could have gone wrong with it has gone wrong with it.

firstly it is a rubbish system. the idea that junior doctors across the country should be selected for interviews based on their ability to answer ridiculous questions that do nothing to prove their clinical competencies is unbelievable. who would you rather have treating you? someone who has attended courses, taken exams, has previous experience in the field, or someone who can describe in under 150 words how they communicated effectively with a patient.

the application form asked a series of case-study type questions about communication skills, working as part of a team, and demonstrating professional integrity. the questions were not based on any evidence suggestion one could actually learn anything about an individual from their answers, and according to the marking scheme the answers earned far more 'points' for their eloquence and creative writing skills than for membership exams, previous degrees, clinical courses attended - you might say anything that actually demonstartes that you have the appropriate skills required to work in your chosed specialty.

to make matters worse it has since come to light that many applicants were leaked a copy of the mark scheme before they submitted their applications. that is to say nothing of those who paid companies to write their answers for them.

the system was plagued with other problems as well. the website through which applications had to be submitted could not cope with the volume of applications and crashed several times - leaving some applicants unable to submit their forms before the deadline and so being disqualified from this years chances of a job. there are also rumours that application forms went missing for days during the short-listing process. deadlines for the submission of forms and then subsequently the offers for interview had to be extended, some applicants were initally offerd interviews which were later withdrawn, others did not hear about their offers for many days after the date given for details to be released. many applicants at all leves received no offers for interviews at all.

you might argue that all is fair in love and MTAS because the whole thing is so ludicrous. however all application forms have now been scrapped as the result of a decision by the review committee that they were so flawed that they must not be taken into account during the job aplication process. the process continues to spiral out of control with no real hope of a satisfactory solution to this mess being found.