{"id":235,"date":"2007-05-21T12:47:35","date_gmt":"2007-05-21T11:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/resource.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/05\/21\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\/"},"modified":"2007-05-21T12:47:35","modified_gmt":"2007-05-21T11:47:35","slug":"bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/05\/21\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"BMA chairman resigns over MTAS letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an unexpected move, the BMA’s\u00a0chairman Jim Johnson has resigned after a storm of protest at\u00a0a letter he wrote to The Times\u00a0supporting the government’s reforms of medical education — and stating that\u00a0continuing to use\u00a0the flawed MTAS system for appointing round 1 candidates was the ‘best available solution’.<\/p>\n

His letter, written with Carol Black, chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, caused a furore among BMA members over the weekend and led to Mr\u00a0Johnson’s decision\u00a0 to stand down on Sunday (20 May). <\/p>\n

A\u00a0number of comments about\u00a0whether it was right\u00a0he continue as chairman were posted by BMA council members on the association’s website, he told the BMJ. It’s understood he was placed in a position where he had little choice but to resign.<\/p>\n

Many junior doctors had been furious that the BMA representatives on the MTAS review group had gone along with the proposal to continue with the existing interviews, despite the fact they were based on the flawed MTAS computer system. At one point it looked as if Jo Hilborne, chair of the Junior Doctors Committee, would lose a vote of no confidence, but she managed to weather that storm.<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson claims his letter <\/a>was merely\u00a0reiterating existing BMA policy. What seems to have most annoyed BMA members was the paragraph in which he and\u00a0Carol Black said they\u00a0“restated their support for the Chief Medical Officer and his role in improving junior doctors’ training”.<\/p>\n

“The Chief Medical\u00a0Officer\u00a0seems to be a bit of a hate figure within the BMA at the moment,”\u00a0Mr Johnson\u00a0said. “I think it is my job to support any member that is being got at and isn’t in a position to support himself,” he added referring to the fact the Chief Medical Officer, a BMA member and architect of the medical education reforms,\u00a0was under attack\u00a0from Remedy UK— along with health secretary Patricia Hewitt.<\/p>\n

He defended the comments he made on MTAS, arguing that what he wrote was in line with\u00a0the BMA’s policy:<\/p>\n

“MTAS may not be a very good system but we’ve got to be pragmatic,” he said.\u00a0 The BMA had accepted the current round of interviews should go ahead, albeit on a flawed\u00a0application system, because:\u00a0\u00a0“Doctors have to be in training posts by August.”<\/p>\n

The suggestion by Remedy UK, up until the eve of their court case, that the interviews carried out so far should be scrapped, was not accepted by the BMA he said. “The rather flawed system has got to go ahead,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0“I think modernising medical careers has a lot of faults,” said Mr Johnson. “But in the\u00a0 past SHOs had no hope of promotion and were just going from job to job.”<\/p>\n

But given the sensitivity of the MTAS issue — with many junior doctors threatening to leave the BMA over the line it had taken — Mr Johnson’s letter was bound to\u00a0offend many association members.<\/p>\n

He told the BMJ that he did not consult the BMA before writing to The Times. “The BMA policy is that we support MMC,” he said. “We can’t have a policy we are ashamed of. I don’t have to consult every time I write a letter.”<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson said it was “completely untrue” that he wasn’t angry about what had happened over MTAS. “But I don’t regret coming to the aid of a colleague.”<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson was\u00a0probably going to\u00a0stand down from the BMA next month in any case, after being at the helm for four years. “I was feeling for a long time that four years was enough,” he said. “But I wouldn’t have chosen to end it in this way.<\/p>\n

“It’s got to the stage where it is actually damaging the association. There have been a few resignations and if your own council members are being critical of you, that is a situation where I am no longer helping.”<\/p>\n

He defended his decision to support the CMO, although many members feel this put the BMA too close to government. “The\u00a0BMA\u00a0is always seen as a bit of the establishment. There will always be\u00a0members who say the BMA isn’t doing enough.<\/p>\n

“I’ve no doubt at all that my letter was the correct thing to do.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an unexpected move, the BMA’s\u00a0chairman Jim Johnson has resigned after a storm of protest at\u00a0a letter he wrote to The Times\u00a0supporting the government’s reforms of medical education — and […]<\/p>\n

More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBMA chairman resigns over MTAS letter - The BMJ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/05\/21\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"BMA chairman resigns over MTAS letter - The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In an unexpected move, the BMA’s\u00a0chairman Jim Johnson has resigned after a storm of protest at\u00a0a letter he wrote to The Times\u00a0supporting the government’s reforms of medical education — and [...]More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2007\/05\/21\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The BMJ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/bmjdotcom\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-05-21T11:47:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@bmj_latest\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/05\\\/21\\\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/05\\\/21\\\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"BMA chairman resigns over MTAS letter\",\"datePublished\":\"2007-05-21T11:47:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/05\\\/21\\\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":734,\"commentCount\":2,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/05\\\/21\\\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/05\\\/21\\\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/bmj\\\/2007\\\/05\\\/21\\\/bma-president-resigns-over-mtas-letter\\\/\",\"name\":\"BMA chairman resigns over MTAS letter - 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