MTAS lessons not learnt

Just after the Tooke review has been released, hopes were high that the powers that be would be forced to change their incompetent ways; a reality check is often only just around the corner and it has come rather quicker than many expected.

The new Foundation Programme application form is available for all to see online and it contains the same white space questions that caused such uproar in MTAS 2007. These white space questions have been used to select for Foundation Programmes for several years and I have yet to find a trainee who thinks that they are not an utterly useless load of rubbish. Here they are:

"Question 1

Maximum points available: 5 points Limit: 250 words

* List your educational achievements.

Question 2

Maximum points available: 8 points Limit: 150 words

* Give one example of a non-academic achievement explaining both the significance to you and the relevance to foundation training.

Question 3

Maximum points available: 8 points Limit: 150 words

* Describe one example (not necessarily clinical) relevant to your medical training where you have felt personally under pressure and/or challenged. What did you do to manage this and what did you learn from this experience that will be relevant to your foundation training?

Question 4

Maximum points available: 8 points Limit: 150 words

* Describe one example from your undergraduate medical training of your ability to prioritise tasks and information from any clinical or education area. What was the outcome, what have you learned and how will you apply this to foundation training?

Question 5

Maximum points available: 8 points Limit: 150 words

* Describe one example from your own clinical experience that has increased your understanding of the importance of team working. What was your role and contribution to the team? What have you learned and how will you apply this to foundation training?

Question 6

Maximum points available: 8 points Limit: 150 words

* Describe one example of a recent clinical situation where you demonstrated appropriate professional behaviour. What did you do and what have you learned? How will you apply this to foundation training?

Question 7

Maximum points available: 10 points Limit: 250 words

* Compare and contrast the care pathways you have observed or two diferent patients with similar clinical problems. To what extent did each pathway take the individual needs of the patient into account? What have you learned from these patients that will be relevant to your foundation training?"

I am lost for words. This is no way to select doctors. It shows just how hard it is going to be for the Tooke review to have the effect it should, as we still have the same selection of incompetent organisations running things with the same idiots in charge. Surely for the Tooke recommendations to be implemented we need a mass clear out of the staff who have been shown to be incompetent and negligent with their actions in recent months?

If nothing is done to remove the large array of incompetents at the DoH, PMETB, GMC, Royal Colleges and BMA; then how will progress be made? It would be a shame if the Tooke review is just another talking shop that results in no real change in the useless institutions that are running things. The pressure must be kept up, otherwise this will not be the last time white space waffle is inflicted upon us.