There have been calls today for the Prime Minister to intervene personally over the Dept of Health MTAS (Medical Training Application Service) website, which is currently suspended while - presumably - the department tries to work out how to bring it back online without compromising the data privacy of those whose CVs are recorded on it.
It's worth pointing out that, while it's the privacy breach which has brought the system so prominently into the public eye, the concerns about it are a lot more wide-ranging than that. This letter, from the President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) provides interesting background - as well as confirming that the fatal shortcomings of the system have been known about for at least eight weeks now.
The principal purpose of the site is to match newly-qualified doctors with available training in the specialist areas they wish to enter as they develop their careers. However, one of the main issues seems to be a mismatch between the type of information the website allows applicants to type in concerning their qualification for said specialist training, and the type of information on which applicant selection would best be based. In other words, the site does (did) not provide a workable system for evaluating Medical Training Applications. As it has now been taken out of Service, it has achieved something of a clean sweep.
Another story which has hit the headlines is that of junior doctor Hua Luk, who applied for his chosen specialism via the website, only to be told that his application had been rejected because he did not have the 'correct immigration status'. It's not clear what information formed the basis for this decision, as Dr Luk was born in Surrey and went to Cambridge University. Presumably someone just took a look at his name and guessed that he might be an immigrant. That's the trouble with relying on web-based application forms, you see... they all look alike.
If that's what really happened, it doesn't look as though the Dept of Health will be meeting its racial equality obligations either... which is ironic given that 'ethnic origin' was among the PII items their system was disclosing so freely.
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