I am writing to vent my frustration about the continued debacle that is the implementation of Modernising Medical Careers and the appalling way junior doctors are being treated. My frustration is not with the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS), as this has already been disbanded, a vision that all junior doctors hoped we would see but sadly too late.

I am writing to vent my frustration about the continued debacle that is the implementation of Modernising Medical Careers and the appalling way junior doctors are being treated. My frustration is not with the Medical Training Application Service (MTAS), as this has already been disbanded, a vision that all junior doctors hoped we would see but sadly too late.

My frustration is that, as of August, I and virtually all my colleagues have yet to be given any idea of what jobs we will be doing. I am now a paediatric senior house officer in Yorkhill and have been employed on a training contract for almost two years. I found out recently that I had not been selected, as one of only seven candidates, to be given a specialist training contract and, therefore, I am awaiting confirmation of my future in both paediatrics and as a doctor.

I understand the need for competition and striving for excellence, and appreciate that the best people should be selected for jobs. However, I cannot, and neither can my peers or seniors, including consultants, see how hospitals will be able to function with so few staff as will be allocated jobs.

It may be that the government intend to employ other doctors to fill the shortages, but are they to be employed on non-training contracts? If this is the case, why would we choose to take up these posts, alongside people whose year of work will be recognised, working incredibly hard for many anti-social hours only to be able to say at the end of the year that no employer would recognise this?

The whole procedure has been ill-thought-out, poorly implemented, badly communicated to junior doctors and has resulted in uncertainty and insecurity for junior doctors lasting for four months so far. In our line of work we are taught that communication is vital to good patient care, and that listening and relaying information lead to much happier and informed patients. Perhaps government ministers should have had some training in these areas.

As a result of bad communication, mismanagement and poor planning my morale is at an all-time low. My friends and colleagues feel the same. Current estimates are that there are 16,000 doctors, costing on average £250,000 each to train, who will face the very real prospect of being unemployed in a month.

This would amount to a waste of £4bn if they all uprooted and left to work in other, welcoming countries. This would also have a detrimental effect on the NHS. Insufficient public attention has been paid to a shambles that will affect not only junior doctors, but the entire country.

Dr Keir Greenhalgh, 29 Huntly Gardens, Glasgow.