Statement on ST3 recruitment
Monday May 4 2020
On March 30, the four national education leads published a letter outlining the contingency plans for specialty recruitment during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Association of Anaesthetists Trainee Committee understand the difficult situation and appreciate the reasons behind their decision to cancel ST3 recruitment interviews. However, we have concerns about using unvalidated portfolio self- assessment scores alone to allocate ST3 posts for August 2020 and about the adverse effects this may have on our trainee members.
On April 17, we sent a letter addressed to the four national education leads emphasising our concerns about using an unvalidated and potentially unfair process for recruitment and offered them alternative solutions. We recently received a response to our letter stating, “… whilst we understand the arguments you have presented, we do not feel it is wise to change the four nation, cross-Colleges consensus that was achieved on this issue”.
We believe this response will be a disappointment to our members and particularly to those applying to this August’s ST3 recruitment process.
We believe this response will be a disappointment to our members and particularly to those applying to this August’s ST3 recruitment process. Although no changes will be made in light of our initial letter, we continue to advocate for our members and represent their interests to the best of our ability.
The Association of Anaesthetists and the Trainee Committee still have ongoing concerns that the recruitment process the bodies have chosen may disadvantage some groups. We have written back to the four national educational bodies asking to see their impact assessment on diversity and equality for the recruitment process and for them to demonstrate how any potential discrimination was mitigated. We will of course update our members when we have received a response in answer to this query.
Association of Anaesthetists Trainee Committee