Doctors' Working Lives News
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Friday, May 18, 2007
Judicial ruling still pending; latest news on MMC/MTAS; RCS rota planning guidelines
We're still awaiting the outcome of the judicial review of the MMC recruitment process. RemedyUK have told the High Court that "the appointments scheme was so conspicuously unfair as to amount to an abuse of power", and that key decisions which impacted on doctors were being made with no consultation. (Times Online, Channel 4 News) The BMA JDC has published a summary of the current status of the judicial review and of their own position at this stage, which is quite informative.
The RCPsych has welcomed the removal of the MTAS online system. And the chair of the Scottish BMA JDC has pointed out that Scotland opted out of MTAS three weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 News has reported on the potential impact the recruitment process will have on patients, and has obtained a document written by paediatric consultants at St Mary's NHS Trust which outlines two contingency plans should MTAS not continue. Channel 4 also reports that several UK applicants have had their applications wrongly suspended on work permit grounds. The Department of Health responded that they are investigating 26 applications on a case by case basis to establish which are "genuine errors".
In other news, the Royal College of Surgeons has released rota planning guidelines. This does not provide rota patterns but lays out general principles, such as the need for split nights and the option of "voluntary resident on call". Most significantly, the document states that "for more experienced trainees (for example, current SpRs or those in ST3+), the College2 and the National WTD Stakeholder Group3 recommend that night shifts be minimised as they do not provide appropriate training opportunities. In addition, cross-cover at this level is not considered appropriate by the College and the surgical specialist associations."
Finally, just a reminder that all the presentations, documents and tools from the recent conference "Transforming Care Delivery - Towards Working Time Directive 2009" are available at the NHS Healthcareworkforce portal.
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The RCPsych has welcomed the removal of the MTAS online system. And the chair of the Scottish BMA JDC has pointed out that Scotland opted out of MTAS three weeks ago.
Meanwhile, Channel 4 News has reported on the potential impact the recruitment process will have on patients, and has obtained a document written by paediatric consultants at St Mary's NHS Trust which outlines two contingency plans should MTAS not continue. Channel 4 also reports that several UK applicants have had their applications wrongly suspended on work permit grounds. The Department of Health responded that they are investigating 26 applications on a case by case basis to establish which are "genuine errors".
In other news, the Royal College of Surgeons has released rota planning guidelines. This does not provide rota patterns but lays out general principles, such as the need for split nights and the option of "voluntary resident on call". Most significantly, the document states that "for more experienced trainees (for example, current SpRs or those in ST3+), the College2 and the National WTD Stakeholder Group3 recommend that night shifts be minimised as they do not provide appropriate training opportunities. In addition, cross-cover at this level is not considered appropriate by the College and the surgical specialist associations."
Finally, just a reminder that all the presentations, documents and tools from the recent conference "Transforming Care Delivery - Towards Working Time Directive 2009" are available at the NHS Healthcareworkforce portal.
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