Remedy has been handed the outcome of a Freedom of Information request made by a junior doctor in January 2007, just as MMC/MTAS was about to go thermo-nuclear.
Disclosure was furiously resisted by the DoH and reading the email exchange - which is detailed on the Remedy website - one can see why.
They reveal that MMC had as little to do with improving doctor training and patient care as I have with lap-dancing.
It was a dumbing down exercise designed to impose a job culture on a profession, flush out some of the ‘awkward squad’ (senior SHOs who might not be sufficiently biddable for the government’s taste) and - and what an ‘and’ - open the door to a sub consultant grade which would ultimately allow for the culling through natural wastage of potentially the most vocal and powerful awkward squad of all - consultants. That’s my analysis, by the way, and I write this in a personal capacity. Call me paranoid if you like, but it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.
So, what now? The government has succeeded in replacing an organic, evolutionary training system with something unproven and deeply unpopular.
It would appear that your institutions either colluded or were hoodwinked. The elephant is not just in the room but is monopolising the sofa and has cornered the remote control. You’ve been shafted, and grassroots doctors are catching the flak every day in tick box training, rota gaps, insecurity, general demoralisation - never mind WTD coming over the horizon at a gallop.
I’ve spent enough time with doctors in the last two years to know that you see yourselves as special and different. I think you are too. You’re the best and the brightest, and it should not be beyond you to take a long, hard, collective look at the professional, economic, political and social realities you now face, take a deep breath, scream if you need to, and then start coming up with some positive proposals - if only for the benefit of the poor bloody infantry of this process, the patients. I’m one of them which is why I have the temerity to deliver this ’Mummy lecture’ as my children call it when I go off on one. I’d trust you lot over any politician, and so would over 90% of the population.
Remedy can’t and shouldn’t lead this process - indeed, the only kind of leadership I’ll have any truck with is ‘leadership with’ not ‘leadership over’. It can, however, act as honest broker. Arguably, it’s the only organisation that can as it’s the only organisation untainted by MMC.
The challenge for the profession is whether your ivory tower dwellers or those with their heads buried in the sand will have the humility to accept the invitation - and if they do not, whether a new leadership, of ideas and values, creativity and commitment to a great tradition of public service, will emerge.
Tags: Leadership, MMC, Sub-consultant grade
