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.
