Tuesday 16 October 2012

The failings of medical training



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.