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As I was driving back to Cardiff from a gruelling 6 hour meeting of
the Welsh Obstetrics and Gynaecology Specialist Training
Committee in Swansea, I reflected on the 25 agenda items and
asked myself, where is our profession heading to?
The most demanding topic of our meeting was Modernising Medical Careers
(MMC). Having missed the last meeting in May as I was examining Malaysian
students sitting their Masters in obstetrics and gynaecology, I was astounded by
the rapid pace of events and the very tight time scale within which the
programme is being rolled out to have the first batch in post by August 2007.
Equally demanding is the pressure on those who volunteer to short-list
candidates, sitting arduously in front of a computer screens going through and
scoring tens if not hundreds of CVs one after the other. I asked myself, what
happened to the old days where one sat in the comfort of his or her sofa over
the weekend with cup of coffee or some other drink fulfilling the task at their
own pace! The applicants are equally warned that they must respond within
short period if they are short-listed or theyll lose the opportunity for interview
and equally, when the job offer is made or theyll lose that magical ST1 or ST2
job. The message is clear; stay home and dont go on that Ski holiday boys and
girls!
Speaking of ST1 and ST2 posts, their strictly structured training programme
and assessment tools such as OSATS (Objective Structured Assessment of
Technical Skills), Mini-CEX (Mini Clinical Exercise) often pronounced Mini-
Kex by those who are shy from calling it Mini-Sex for obvious reasons, CBD
(Case Based Discussion) and MSF (Multi Source Feedback), I wondered if our
happy days as resident Senior House Officers working in consultant teams and
yearning for that College visit to vent our spleen were golden days or prehistoric
compared to modern trends! I see those resident days returning but
only as resident consultant on call without the usual fun and wild parties of the
Doctors Mess. Of course, no sooner trainees finish ST1 and ST2 years, they
have to face the core curriculum modules and thereafter the Advanced
Training Years, 19 modules in all, not to mention the annual RITA festivals
and culminating in PMETBs award of the CCT. As I began to think of how
much this will add to existing pressures; NHS service delivery, undergraduate
teaching, and University research for those like me, I wondered if we have
already lost the hardly won reduction in our sessions negotiated in the new
consultant contract. By then, I decided its time to turn the radio on and listen
to relaxing classical music!