BMA calls for investigation into cost of MTAS

doi:10.1136/bmj.39332.615718.DB

BMJ 2007;335:534 (15 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.39332.615718.DB

News

BMA calls for investigation into cost of MTAS

Lynn Eaton

London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The National Audit Office should carry out a full independentinvestigation of the cost to the taxpayer of the medical trainingapplication service (MTAS), the flawed computerised system usedthis year to appoint junior doctors to training posts in theUK, says the BMA.

Andrew Rowland, vice chairman of the BMA's Junior Doctors Committee,says in a letter to the National Audit Office that it's notjust the reported £1.9m ( ${euro}$ 2.8m; $3.9m) paid to an IT companyto set up an online recruitment system that needs to be investigated.He says the potential hidden costs to the tax payer should belooked at as well. These may include the continuing costs ofusing MTAS to collect data, he says, and of the extra interviewsthat had to be arranged after the system was abandoned.