Modernising Medical Careers

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Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) was a programme for postgraduate medical training introduced in the UK from 2005 onwards. The programme replaced the traditional grades of medical career before the level of Consultant. The different stages of the programme contribute towards a "Certificate of Completion of Training" (CCT).

1 The new programme
- 1.1 House Officer
- 1.2 Specialty Registrar
2 Implementation
3 References
4 External links

[edit] The new programme

[edit] House Officer

A two-year Foundation Programme replaced the former one-year Pre-registration house officer term and the first year of the former Senior house officer term in 2006. The title "Pre-registration house officer" has been replaced by "Foundation House Officer 1" or F1, but they are still only provisionally registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) during that year, with full registration taking place at the end of the first year of the Foundation Programme subject to successful achievement of the learning outcomes for F1.

The Foundation Programme consists of two years training split into rotations of three or four months in different specialties. The programme features continuing assessments, and intended to provide a more comprehensive exposure of different clinical/ academic fields in healthcare^{[citation needed]}. The introduction of a national curriculum was intended to nationalise and standardise medical training, requiring junior doctors to maintain a "learning portfolio" and offering formal access to careers advice and support.

On successful completion of the F1 year, doctors move straight into the F2 year without having to apply again; under the previous system, doctors applied for SHO jobs within six to eight months of beginning work as a PRHO.

[edit] Specialty Registrar

The next stage of training is the Specialty Registrar (StR). This is a unification of the previous training grades of SHO (except for year 1) and the old SpR grade. The duration of StR training varies by specialty, but as with the Foundation years, all programmes have a standardised curriculum and assessment model that is approved by the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board. In 2007 appointments were made centrally, but following the disastrous outcomes of that system, many specialties will appoint registrars locally from 2008.

On completion of these training programmes, trainees will be awarded a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) and will be entitled to enter the Specialist Register or the General Practitioner (GP) Register as appropriate.

[edit] Implementation

[edit] MTAS

In 2007 appointment to this level of training was facilitated using the Medical Training Application Service. Due to several system failures and political pressure, this was abandoned partway during the process. In 2008, following significant pressure from junior doctors^[1], the MMC Programme Board for England came to an agreement to revert to a local application process determined by deaneries and specialties^{[citation needed]}. Agreement was made that no further attempts would be made to introduce new selection methodologies without piloting, academic evaluation and professional buy-in^{[citation needed]}.

**NHS** **Medical Career Grades**
	Old System		New System (Modernising Medical Careers)
Year 1:	Pre-registration House Officer (PRHO) - one year		Foundation Programme - 2 years
Year 2:	Senior House Officer (SHO) a minimum of two years, although often more.		Foundation Programme - 2 years
Year 3:			Specialty Registrar (StR) in a hospital speciality: six years	Specialty Registrar (StR) in general practice: three years
Year 4:	Specialist Registrar - four to six years.	GP Registrar - one year
Year 5:		General Practitioner total time in training: 4 years
Years 6-8:				General Practitioner total time in training: 5 years
Year 9:	Consultant total time in training: minimum 7-9 years		Consultant total time in training: 8 years	General Practitioner total time in training: 5 years
Optional	Training may be extended by pursuing medical research (usually two-three years), usually with clinical duties as well		Training may be extended by obtaining an Academic Clinical Fellowship for research.

Concerns have been expressed by Remedy UK, in the Lancet, and by the British Medical Association, among others that the reforms have not been fully thought through^{[citation needed]}, may worsen the training situation for many junior doctors^{[citation needed]}, and may be part of a covert plan to create "a permanent subclass" of cheap, undertrained subspecialists^[2].

[edit] Criticisms

A number of criticisms have been made about the new MMC system, and it was perceived sufficiently poorly within the medical profession that its implementation was ultimately boycotted by senior doctors around the country^[3]^[4].

The transition to the new system and the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) have been particularly criticised. In order to implement MMC, all trainees not appointed to specialist registrar posts for 1 August 2007 were required to apply for posts on the new MMC curriculum, with far fewer posts than applicants^{[citation needed]}. However, the application process has had technical problems ^[5], and was criticised over the weighting and marking of the applications^[6]^[7], with one London training school calling it "unfair and ineffective" in resigning from the process^[4].

There were also concerns expressed over the number of training posts available and the subsequent risk that trained doctors would be forced to emigrate or leave the profession as they would be unable to find jobs in the UK. Government claims that there were 23,000 posts for 32,000 applicants^[8] were revealed by subsequent work to be 4,500 out, with the actual number appearing to be 18,500^[9].

On 17th March 2007 doctors marched in mass protest orchestrated by Remedy UK against the system in London and Glasgow. ^[10].

MMC & MTAS march in London

[edit] Resignations

On 30 March 2007, Professor Alan Crockard resigned as national director of Modernising Medical Careers. In his letter of resignation to Prof Sir Liam Donaldson the chief medical officer for England, Professor Crockard stated that he was increasingly aware that he had "responsibility, but less and less authority" ^[11] and that "the overriding message coming back from the profession is that it has lost confidence in the current recruitment system". Professor Crockard asked that this be urgently addressed "in the interest of the most important people in the whole process, the junior doctors".^[12]

On 31 March 2007, Alex Liakos, one of the student advisers to MMC, also resigned, citing widespread misgivings about MMC as a whole and "tokenistic" involvement of doctors in the process. ^[13]

On 5th April 2007 Professor Shelley Heard resigned as MMC National Clinical Advisor, expressing her support for MMC in principle but citing the major problems with the recruitment process and concerns over the conclusions of the Department of Health's Review Group. ^[14]

[edit] Department of Health response

The Department of Health launched a full review of the recruitment process for specialty training on 9 March 2007. On 22 March 2007 the Review Group issued a statement building on the recommendations they had made and guaranteeing interviews to all long-listable applicants. ^[15] These recommendations were not found acceptable by the British Medical Association's junior doctors committee and they pulled out from the negotiations with the government on 23 March.^[16]

[edit] Secretary of State's apologies

On 3 April 2007, during an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, the Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt apologised to junior doctors over the crisis, saying that the application scheme had caused "needless anxiety and distress". The BMA welcomed the government's acknowledgement of the problem but stated that "an apology isn't enough"^[17]. Patricia Hewitt's apology was repeated to parliament on 16 April 2007, in which she stated that "the problems that have arisen relate in the main to the implementation process and not to the underlying principles of Modernising Medical Careers."^[18]. This was later disputed in the independent inquiry into MMC by Sir John Tooke.

Later that month Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley accused Ms Hewitt of failing to express genuine regret over the situation.^[19].

On 1 May 2007 Ms Hewitt made another apology in the House of Commons ^[20] after the suspension of the MTAS website due to security breaches that she described as "utterly deplorable". ^[21].

[edit] MTAS website taken offline

The MTAS website was suspended on April 26 2007 after a Channel 4 News report stated that applicants had been able to see each other's files by changing two digits in the personalised web address given to each individual.^[22] At that point the Department of Health announced that this was a temporary suspension.^[23]

On May 15 2007 MTAS was shelved by ministers due to security breaches. Patricia Hewitt said that after the first round of recruitment, the system would only fulfil a monitoring role that year. ^[24]

[edit] Judicial review

A judicial review of MTAS was requested by pressure group Remedy UK, who demanded that the appointments process should be scrapped altogether. The case was heard in the High Court from May 16-17 2007. On Wednesday May 23 2007 Mr Justice Goldring ruled against Remedy UK, stating that "although far from ideal", the Review Group's decision on amending the appointments process after the first round of interviews was "within the range of reasonable responses", and that the Review Group was "entitled to reach the decision it did given the circumstances facing it at the time". Although he ruled against invalidating the interviews that had already taken place, Mr Justice Goldring added that this judgement did not imply that junior doctors were not entitled to feel aggrieved, as "the premature introduction of MTAS has had disastrous consequences". Remedy UK have said they will not appeal the verdict, in order to avoid further uncertainty for junior doctors. ^[25]^[26]^[27]