Junior doctor crisis, please read

[Jeepers]

Please have a look at this,

bugger the link didn't work! I'll try again

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/02/nhs02.xml

Doctor chaos

Still not great, but it can be cut & pasted now at least.

I just want to make people aware of the current scandulous upheaval going on in medical training. You only have to read some of the many comments at the bottom of the article to get a feeling of how bad this is. The general public has not been aware of what has been happening due to the lack of media interest till now. This is not just something wihtin the medical profession but will affect everyone who uses the NHS. Services and competencies will be affected and patient care compromised.

There is little I can do to stop this but I wanted to make as many people as possible aware of the situation and its implications as we all sleepwalk into this chaos

Ta for very professional link!

Actually the original link was meant for an article on "Doctors training a shambles" on 2/2/07, but theres a link to that at the bottom of the article linked below!

same thing is happening to trainee nurses, SALTs, OTs and physios.....

I know, it's dreadful. DH is a doctor but a GP thankfully so not as affected. Most of his friends are affected and it's absolutely awful that they are going through this. Thanks for highlighting it! Are you affected?

Yes, I am one of the lucky ones who has shortlistings, but I have many friends and colleagues who don't. The whole system is a lottery. The government don't listen and continue to plough on ahead regardless.

I know that many of the other professionals within the NHS are affected, but this doesn't make this particular situation any less important or less deserving for publicity.

cynical moi thinks it is all a dastardly plot by the government to bring Doctors to their knees,break up any solidarity amongst them, probably continue the relentless break up/break down of the NHS,and make everything become even more amenable to privatisation, and force NHS professionals to work longer hours for less, oh actually they have already done that with the DDRB pay reviews.

What speciality are you going for, Jeepers? Well done on the shortlisting. One of our friends has not been shortlisted for ST3 and he's devastated. Its all so uncertain

notreallyopenforthewholeworld

Psychiatry, ST3 level. Because of the way the system designed there are more experienced doctors going for fewer jobs. The less experienced you are the better chance you have of a job. If you don't get a job this year thats pretty much it for any meangingful career.

The government have also messed around many overseas doctors like your linked article states. Currently though people with uncertain visa status have been shortlisted but they still don't know where they stand as regards getting a job. Its all been done badly i.e. rushed and as usual without thinking things through

I've been typing letters to patients all this last week to cancel outpatient clinics at short notice. All the consultants have been ordered to sit on interview panels for the whole week and the junior doctors are away being interviewed all over the country. The ones not shortlisted have all gone of sick not suprisingly.

Its madness. I can't even imagine how its going to be in aug when everyone has to up sticks and move the length and breadth of the country

It's a complete mess. It would never be allowed to happen in any profession in the private sector. My brother who thankfully at 40 is already a consultant used to negotiate doctor's pay. At one point they nearly opted right out to contract services back to the NHS. I think that would be a better route but it's riskier. You work and work and work and you have an expectation it will be that you get a job of those kinds based on how good you are and you know you'll earn less than colleagues who aer often less clever going into the City and business but at least you had that job assurance and some comfort of fair treatment and then you get presented with this mess.

I am a clin ical mgr in the nhs and am very fed up about what has been happening in the nhs . There have been big chamged across all of the staff areas , not all of them positive. This govt is trying to de-grade nhs staff, and replace them with cheaper options , and poorer private options. THE PUBLIC DO NOT KNOW HOW THIS WILL REALLY AFFECT THEM UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE

sorry hay-wire typing with annoyance

Under the new scheme doctors 2 years out of medical school will be called specialist registrars instead of having to wait 5 years and pass membership exams to get there as it stands currently! Exams will be dumbed down so noone fails ("our selection procedures are so good they would have passed the exams anyway").

Just to show you the standard. One of the questions on a GP application consisted of what to do if your patient started to cry. Do you a) offer her a tissue, b) touch her arm c) usher her out of the room quicly etc etc

In addition people will be expected to choose very small specialities after the first two years and will not be able to gain necessary experience in other areas of medicine.

Its all about pushing people through the system as quickly as possible so dear old Tony can say "look more consultants" (albeit less experienced and poorly trained doctors through no fault of their own).

It's a nightmare for doctors atm, lots of my family and friends are going through this.

How are they getting away with this?

This proposed system has been floating around for several years. But as is the way with these schemes there has been nothing substantial to object to. Over the last six months policy/ plans has been changing and made up on a week to week basis with many assurances that it will be fine. Doctors are not against modernisation/ change per se and were hopeful that this would work out. But as this scheme finally ran out and short listing was announced (late) last week it became very clear that it hadn't worked.

The general public have not been aware because the media had not taken much interest and it is not in the government's interest to publicise their poor management. Doctors representatives and medical colleges have no teeth/ testicles and have gone along with everything the government has said. The government is confident it can do what it likes as doctors have no bargaining tools e.g. contracts (they have cancelled them), they have an employers monopoly and we are not allowed to strike (although there are whisperings).

What to do? I have written to my MP, signed a petition and plan to protest in London on March 16th. Will it make a difference? who knows, but I will try. This new system will cull medical training and kill junior goodwill. As you know, who is it that you see when you turn up to A&E in the middle of the night, who mans the wards 24hrs a day 7 days a week, who does all the dogsbody stuff that keeps the system running? Its the juniors and without them and their current willingness to do more than their current hours/ contract/ job description entails the system will grind to a halt.

.

The Telegraph have been big on this story this week but I don't know if the other papers have picked up on it. I think the Government have successfully got a lot of the media and public to think of doctors as overpayed and privileged (remember the comment about the dustman subsidising the doctor during the university fees row?) I'm not sure doctors - even junior ones - get the same sympathy that nurses do - I don't think people realise how the system works and how hard pushed junior doctors are. And I agree that the Gov. would love to have compliant doctors filling the NHS rather than ones who might slag off their policies to the media or (shudder) run for Parliament.

DD2 (left school 4 years ago) has several friends who did physio degrees and they are all unemployed now - apparently there are so many applicants for the few posts available names are drawn out of a hat