Monday 30 April 2007

More from our special friends


There is yet more invigorating news from our favourite combo, MTAS and DoH; they have released another statement today:

"This may delay the resumption of the service and may potentially cause delay to the interview schedule. We are sorry for this and will work as hard as we can to reinstate the service as quickly as possible."

The 'minimal impact' that Lord Hunt claimed and the 'up and running by Monday' seem to be more than slight stretches of the truth. I have stopped getting angry now, the incompetence and delays have become the norm.

"Our profession is experiencing huge anger and frustration. It is imperative that this anger is directed, with force, against the right people. I am sure that united we will be able to ensure a better outcome for current and future applicants. I also hope that the Government will learn from this mistake and realise that the voice of the profession is not one they can afford to ignore."

This is the last paragraph of a letter written by the president of the BMA James Johnson to doctors about the recent MTAS debacle. In my humble opinion it's been too little too late from the BMA; actions always speak louder than words and Remedy have been the only ones acting to prevent this disaster. There has been a lot of chatter and talk in some quarters, but these words are starting to look very hollow when there is no tangible action to back them up. It was the BMA's job to make the government realise that they could not ignore the voice of the profession, this was not successfully done.
All along the government has not listened to the voiced concerns; thus the only viable option was to unilaterally withdraw support, otherwise the government could use this lack of withdrawal as tacit consent. We have seen in recent weeks how the government has done precisely this; Patricia Hewitt has fallen back on the fact that none of the medical bodies involved in sculpting MMC/MTAS, including the BMA, has withdrawn from proceedings. Surely a unilateral withdrawal became the only practical option quite some time ago? It is always easy in retrospect, however those leading the profession are meant to be canny and politically astute; either they are not as cunning as we think or they deliberately and knowingly went along with these catastrophic reforms.

Like it or not, the BMA and the Royal Colleges have become complicit in the faulty implementation of MMC and MTAS. I remain a sceptic and will be tend to judge people on their actions, not their hollow words.

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