It didn't take the BMA too long to hop on the bandwagon, here is their statement that endorses the decision to abandon MTAS. Given that the BMA was opposed to the Remedy march, this really is pretty rich. The job of union should be to lead in order to further the interests of their members, not to follow others claiming credit for acts that they had nothing to do with.
"However, the BMA is opposed to the proposal from some pressure groups that interviews which have already taken place should be written off. This move was rejected at the recent BMA conference of junior doctors."
This statement is also somewhat debatable, as a motion was passed at a recent BMA conference that stated the only option was to cancel all interviews and revert to the old process, or interview all candidates for all their choices. The current bodge was therefore rejected by the BMA, this directly contradicts this BMA statement. This is not the only example of Dr Rowland getting more than a little confused, he is quoted on the BBC site as saying:
"'However, Dr Rowland said the BMA remained opposed to the Remedy UK legal challenge, saying that scrapping the first round of applications would be disastrous for doctors, for patients, and for the NHS'."
However he is reported to have said on stage at a recent JDC conference that the BMA was not opposed to the Remedy legal challenge. Does Dr Rowland has a bit of memory problem or is he deliberately changing his tune? Either way it just goes to show you can't trust the BMA heirarchy as far as you could thrown them. This kind of behaviour is at best stupid and thoughtless, at worst it is dishonest and cynical.
Let us remember that the BMA were part of the review group and did not walk out of this in the end. The BMA have also been complicit in the creation of MMC and MTAS, and now they have shown once again that they cannot be trusted.
