Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has today issued an apology to those caught up in the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) crisis, acknowledging that it had been a time of ‘great distress’ to them.

And she announced another review, this time of the whole of the Modernising Medical Careers policy, rather than just of MTAS. It would look into ways of strengthening the policy for next year, she said.

“I apologise unreservedly to them for the anxiety that has been caused,” said Ms Hewitt in a formal statement to the House of Commons today.

She then announced that Professor Sir John Tooke, Dean of the Peninsula Medical School, would chair the review. Professor Tooke is also Chair of the Council of Heads of Medical Schools and Chair of the UK Health Education Advisory Committee.

She said the new panel would build on the work of the current MTAS Review Group, led by Professor Neil Douglas.

“We are now some two years into the Modernising Medical Careers initiative which started with the successful launch of Foundation Programmes in 2005. I believe, therefore, that the time is now right to undertake a wider review of Modernising Medical Careers. It is an important programme and we must apply the lessons we have learned to a wider context.”

Ms Hewitt insisted that process underlying Modernising Medical Careers was sound. But it needed to be looked at in the light of what had happened this year.

“The review will clarify and strengthen the principles underlying MMC to ensure that they have engagement and support from the medical profession and its leaders,” she said. “I want the review particularly to look at how the processes involved in delivering Modernising Medical Careers meets the needs of the service, employers and doctors in training.”

Further details of the review group would be made as soon as possible, she said.

When pressed by Conservative health spokesperson Andrew Lansley to give more information on the number of places which would be available — and the numbers of doctors who might not be able to find a place — she reiterated that the many of those applying for posts were already in jobs within the NHS. Talk of thousands of doctors without jobs was “complete nonsense” she said.

“Of course there may be a situation where some whose application for run through training is not fulfilled,” she said. They would find themselves having to stay in staff jobs.”

And she hinted that there might be some more posts created in some specialties to cope with the demand for places. She said that NHS employers had been asked to look again at the number of training posts available in certain specialties “to see whether they would wish to change the numbers.” 

The BMA welcomed the fact it would be an independent review but said action was needed now to tackle the shortage in training posts this year. Dr Jo Hilbourne, chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said the association had warned for years that Modernising Medical Careers had been rushed in too quickly.

“The government’s handling of the training reforms has been appalling,” she said. “It’s depressing that it’s taken a disaster on this scale for them to listen.

Calling for urgent action on the current crisis, she said there were 34,250 doctors applying for 18,5000 training posts in the UK.

“We need solutions that ensure that no doctor in training loses out on a career as a result of government mistakes or poor workforce planning,” she said.

The BMA welcomed the fact it would be an independent review but said action was needed now to tackle the shortage in training posts this year. Dr Jo Hilbourne, chairman of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said the association had warned for years that Modernising Medical Careers had been rushed in too quickly.

Matt Jameson-Evans, from Remedy UK, was concerned that the MMC review should include representation from junior doctors. “Remedy has a part to play in this, shoulder to shoulder with the BMA,” he said.

But the latest announcement does not affect the situation this year, he said.

“It doesn’t affect the legal action we are taking,” he said. “It doesn’t resolve the problems that we have currently got.”