JUNIOR doctors' leaders yesterday praised moves to re-interview candidates who have been rejected for a training system for specialist posts.
Hundreds of consultants, junior doctors and students are due to protest against the introduction of Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) at rallies in Glasgow and London today, which they say has left talented candidates overlooked for some 22,000 training places.
However, both the British Medical Association and Remedy UK - a breakaway group in opposition to MMC - last night praised efforts by clinical leaders to resolve the crisis.
Kevin Cormack, Scottish spokesman for Remedy UK, welcomed the commitment by Harry Burns, Scotland's chief medical officer, to re-interview candidates who had not been shortlisted. He said: "We still have concerns that MMC will require junior doctors to travel where they do not want to work and will reduce the number of hours needed to train specialists."
Senior clinicians have raised concerns that the selection process rejected some of the best candidates by not taking account of experience and qualifications, prompting the Department of Health in England to set up a review group.
In a letter to The Herald yesterday, Dr Burns, BMA Scotland and heads of the royal colleges said they would seek to re-interview rejected candidates, even if this was not recommended by the review.
A BMA spokeswoman said last night: "The BMA in Scotland is pleased that the Scottish Executive is giving serious consideration to our proposal to interview all junior doctors who applied to posts in Scotland in the first stage of the application process." However, she added that "the system as a whole is flawed".
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