Friday 15 February 2008

The fall out of MMC


Rabid doctors like myself have been predicting the massive service shortfalls that would result from the rushed Modernising Medical Careers reform of medical training. The media have started to take notice.

The Channel 4 news reported on the shortage of frontline doctors yesterday, while the Telegraph quickly followed suit. The crisis has hardly made the news until now, but a lot of people who work on the ground in hospitals will tell you that these staffing shortages are very widespread indeed.

The lethal combination of MMC and MTAS has resulted in the same amount of work being done by fewer staff, with the inevitable knock on effects on patient care. This is more than slightly perverse, given the large number of doctors who have not been able to find work and the number who have emigrated to work elsewhere.

The is already one of the most underdoctored countries in the developed world, so one would think that a government with half a brain would be more than a little worried at developments:


"We know there is some anecdotal evidence of these problems around middle-grade junior doctors. However, while we are keeping a careful eye on it, there is no evidence that such problems are widespread."

This is typical from our leaders at the DoH who are in a state of permanent denial. I just wonder whether this state of denial is linked to the deskilling of those working in the NHS via the skills ladder, is this what the government really wants? Is it a great idea to have a health system where anyone can have a go and where highly skilled doctors are no longer valued, thus becoming demoralised and broken? The black cat and the ferret have their ideas.

4 comments:

David L. Cox said...

I,too, found the DoH use of he phrase 'anecdotal evidence' particularly galling.

The problem was highlighted in EVIDENCE to the Commons Health Service Committee meeting on the MMC fiasco in December, during the session with Fidelio, I believe. Not therefore 'anecdotal' at all!

DoH 'spokesmen' should be better informed. Or is this an attempt to spin the media again?

The two weeks on a trolley team said...

The dickheads at the DOH have no solid evidence of the problems because they haven't gone looking for any, in my opinion.

Of course hospital managers are telling their political leaders that everything is jusssssssttttttt fiiiiiine.

Dr Thunder
www.twoweeksonatrolley.blogspot.co

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Garth Marenghi said...

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