The Royal College of Surgeons has warned that the plans to offer all applicants on round one of the MTAS application process an interview will have a detrimental knock-on effect on patient care.

 
Bernard Ribeiro, president of the college, said its council was “increasingly concerned” that patient care may suffer if consultants are asked to give up time in clinics and operating theatres to interview “the thousands of candidates let down by MTAS.”

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The BMA has pulled out of talks on the review of MTAS.

Proposals issued by the review group last night would have limited each junior doctor to just one interview in the current job round.

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Despite a meeting of the MTAS review group yesterday, there’s been a deathly silence from the Department of Health on its progress.

All that the BMA - one of the group’s members - will say is: “We are using all available avenues to apply pressure on the government to come up with an adequate solution to this mess, which has caused anxiety to thousands of young doctors and taken up much of consultants’ valuable time. This includes expressing the seriousness of the situation through the review group.”

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Handwashing talks are the same the world over. Last time I wrote about handwashing, I got my wrists slapped by my colleagues in infection control. more…

The government’s Modernising Medical Careers agenda, following the MTAS march at the weekend, hit Westminster yesterday as health secretary Patricia Hewitt faced questioning from MPs led by Conservative health spokesman Andrew Lansley.

Ms Hewitt reiterated the government’s commitment to a computerised application process, and said the Department of Health would continue to work to ensure that trainee doctors were properly supported and fairly treated, and that the NHS is able to train and recruit the best doctors for the future. more…

Wordsworth’s poem about daffodils, I wandered lonely as a cloud, has divided opinion ever since it was first published in 1807. more…

Longevity is a subject which has interested people from the dawn of history. more…

And still they come. Any hope that big trials of new interventions for acute coronary syndromes were about to dry up, and that the sound of the silly acronym would no longer be heard in the land, can safely be dismissed. more…

Who gives a stuff about impact factors? more…

There have been lots of studies about the best place to have myocardial infarction (answer: close to a major hospital) but this is the first I have read about the best time to have one. more…