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"Shambolic" MTAS abandoned

16 May 2007

"Shambolic" MTAS abandoned At last there is some good news for medical students - the controversial Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) has been abandoned by the government.

The system - designed to match junior doctors to specific training posts - was recently attacked by medical students and doctors for being technically flawed, poorly designed and unreliable.

Patricia Hewitt, health secretary, has now confirmed that after the first round of recruitment the system would only fulfil a monitoring role.

Ms Hewitt issued a written statement which said: "Given the continuing concerns of junior doctors about MTAS, the system will not be used for matching candidates to training posts, but will continue to be used for national monitoring."

Dr Andrew Rowland, vice chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) Junior Doctors' Committee, responded by saying: "The Department of Health has at last seen sense and effectively abandoned the unfair, discredited and shambolic MTAS system.

"Junior doctors have suffered blow after blow because of the government's terrible handling of these reforms. They have had to go through months of anxiety about their NHS careers and on top of that, have potentially had their personal details exposed on the MTAS website."

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