BMA warns of ‘meaningless’ junior doctor job applications

The British Medical Association (BMA) has warned that junior doctors who have not yet found a job through the Medical Training Application Service are being forced to use the same “discredited” and “disastrous” procedure in a second round of applications.

Noting that former health secretary Patricia Hewitt promised this second round would feature a revised process including the option to submit a structured CV, the BMA claims that in some areas the system has not been reformed.

Consequently, some junior doctors will be unable to submit a CV and be forced to answer questions it terms as “creative writing”.

Dr Jo Hilborne, chairman of the junior doctors committee of the BMA, said: “No-one could conceivably have any confidence in the original form, which has failed many excellent doctors already.

“To see it appearing again, unchanged, in the second round is adding insult to injury.”

The BMA adds that in some areas, deadlines for second round applications expired prior to the end of the first round, with job candidates not informed of this problem.

Patricia Hewitt resigned from the post of health secretary for personal reasons earlier this week and was replaced by Alan Johnson yesterday in the first cabinet of new prime minister Gordon Brown.