War of the Woeful.

“We know now that in the early years of the twenty first century junior doctors were being watched closely by intelligences greater than their own. We know now that as house officers busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of MSU…

With infinite complacence juniors went to and fro all over the UK about their little affairs, serene in the assurance of their dominion over this small foundation post which, by chance or design, they had inherited from the lucky sod who landed a run-through place last year.
Yet across an immense ethereal gulf, minds that are to our minds as ours are to the beasts in the jungle, intellects vast, cool and very unsympathetic, regarded our previous training programme with envious eyes and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
In the seventh year of the twentieth first century came the great disillusionment. It was near the end of October. Business was better. Morale was picking up. On this particular evening, we estimated that thirty-two million people were listening in on radios…”
Was H.G. Wells predicting the current MMC situation when he penned War of the Worlds? Perhaps not thirty-two million, but each day hundreds of junior doctors now check the MMC website, eagerly news regarding “the design, implementation and timing of MMC recruitment to specialty training 2008”.

Yet, there is only that picture of the little man with his hands in his pockets in the top left hand corner to greet us. Is this apt? Will today be the day we wonder? “Detailed information for applicants is expected to become available in early December 2007” I didn’t even have to highlight the “early December” bit. It’s already highlighted.

Please pardon the Orsonian introduction and I know MMC has been flogged to death (and my word how we wish it really had been), but at the moment I find myself in junior doctor limbo. With the next cohort of juniors due to start application for specialty training next month, we wait anxiously. Has it really been a year since the gears of MTAS began to creak and groan…and promptly crash we ask ourselves? My, doesn’t 12 months fly when you’re worrying your pants off about your career?

So, what next from the DoH? How will the latest news regarding recruitment manifest itself in the application process? Devolution (I’m one step ahead of you). No national IT system for applications (cue January postal strike and all submissions via carrier pigeon being made mandatory). Staggered start dates. Staggered? Consider the Oxford Dictionary definition of the word; “walk unsteadily, shock confuse, cause to hesitate or waver…” We can only speculate as to what explanation Prof Pierson would offer us.

Despite the obvious concern, especially when last years events are considered, we all continue with our daily duties to the best of our ability. And each day we check the MMC site like love sick teenagers checking their mobile phones… but Patricia left us long ago. In the mean time we shall amuse ourselves with the ever popular “alternative definitions for abbreviations” game. Hmm, MTAS… My Trainings All Stopped? Suggestions on a postcard please…

Dr David McCarthy, FP2 in Trauma and Orthopaedics