From rxpgnews.com
Royal College Concerned About Impact of MTAS on Mental Health of Trainee Doctors
By Royal College of Psychiatrists,
Mar 8, 2007 - 9:07:17 AM
The Royal College of Psychiatrists has today expressed concern at the impact the chaos related that the Medical Application Service process is having on the mental health of trainee doctors.
“The impact of potential unemployment and the uncertainty on the human rights and mental health of trainees, their partners and families cannot be under-estimated, said Professor Dinesh Bhugra, Dean of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
“The College can report instances where the technology for referees has not worked, despite repeated emails and calls to the helpdesk. For instance, referees have not been able to click answers which say ‘yes’ as to whether they would employ a particular trainee; they could only click ‘no’ in response to the question “would you employ this applicant?”.
“We are saddened to see that in some schemes only 6% of existing trainees have been short-listed, in spite of the fact that they had previously been interviewed and selected for the jobs they are doing, continued Professor Bhugra. The College was not consulted about the ratings for short-listing applicants.
“We are very concerned about the total lack of transparency in the short-listing process. If the process was fair and valid, then good trainees should have been short-listed across all Deaneries. The eligibility criteria are universal, therefore it is difficult to understand why trainees have been short-listed in one area, but not in another.
“We would like to support our trainees and encourage them to go with the process pending its urgent review. We are pushing hard to gather information on applicant/vacancy ratios, variations across Deaneries and feedback to unsuccessful applicants.
“We would encourage Modernising Medical Careers to select randomly a number of applicants, both successful and unsuccessful, to conduct an independent assessment of quality, concluded Professor Bhugra”
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