Juniors' job offers grouped into one system
5 December 2012
Junior doctors will receive all their specialty-training job offers for next year via a new online system.
Applications for 2013 are being made through postgraduate medical deanery and royal college recruitment systems but the offers of all posts will be made through the electronic system.
It means trainees can view all of their offers through the UK Offers System and then use it to accept, reject or hold them until a set date.
The system, launched last week, is the result of extensive testing and piloting involving the four UK health departments and key groups including the BMA junior doctors committee.
Decisions, decisions
JDC joint deputy chair Tim Yates said: ‘Choosing a specialty is one of the most difficult career decisions junior doctors have to face.
‘Being able to see your job offers in one place and to hold and or upgrade them as time goes on will make the process simpler and more convenient. It is important that the IT system that supports this process is robust. The BMA has worked with the Department of Health to design and then test the system to destruction.’
Junior doctors will be sent an email with login details for the system within 14 days of the national closing date for specialty training applications on Friday.
From the point of receiving a job offer, a trainee will have 48 hours, including weekends and bank holidays, to decide whether to accept, reject or hold it.
Intelligent design
The system will be sensitive to preferences made during the application process so that if a junior receives an offer of a higher ranked job from a ‘unit of application’ – a deanery – where they have already held or accepted an offer, it will be automatically updated to the higher offer. However, trainees will have the option to revert to the original offer.
Read BMA guidance on the new system.