The 'new and exciting' broad based training program is a sad
indictment of the rushed reform of UK medical training that has taken place in
the form of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC).
The fact that such a program is needed says more about the lack of consistent
training value of many Foundation Year jobs than anything else, with the lack
of a proper robust regulatory process overseeing medical training being a key factor in this failure. There are
also several significant flaws in this broad based program, including the
obvious potential for a lack of medical experience for those wishing to pursue
a career in hospital medicine.
Key
elements of MMC continue to be jettisoned in the dustbin; these include run
through training in several specialities including Orthopaedics, the misuse of
minimally validated workplace based assessments and shortened GP training. It is just a great shame that the robustly
regulated PRHO year of six months medicine and six months surgery cannot be
resurrected. What medical training
really needs is the proper robust regulation of all training posts, not the
reinvention of wheels.
