News review 2008

Abstract

After the problems with the 2007 appointment round for junior doctors, 2008 was a much quieter year after the centralised computer application process was abandoned. The Tooke inquiry report, Aspiring to Excellence , published in January, proposed ringfencing the budget for medical education and training and creating a new body called NHS: Medical Education England (NHS: MEE) to oversee training in England. This proposal was agreed by the Department of Health, and the new body should start work in January 2009. MEE will be an independent advisory body that should give a coherent, professional voice on medical education and training and advise the Department of Health. Professor Tooke also proposed the merger of the General Medical Council and Postgraduate Medical Education Training Board, which should happen in 2010. In February, the Home Office made changes to the immigration system that meant far fewer medical graduates who gained their degrees outside the European Economic Area were eligible for posts in the NHS. And although the number of posts available for those training to work in a hospital setting is still under review, the Department of Health announced in September that the intake to year 1 of GP specialty training programmes would increase by 400 in the 2009-10 allocations. As Newshound reported in August, there were none of the problems encountered the previous year with junior doctors scrabbling around to find a post. The BMA said that although there were still some uncertainties around the start of the placements, most juniors did get jobs. Remedy UK, which built itself a reputation as a single issue campaign group in 2007, had to rethink its tactics in 2008. Remedy launched its own magazine, R-UK , and as its editor Jamie Wilson admits in his December editorial, the organisation is “certainly at a crossroads, …