1,500 doctors lose job offers after IT glitch

HUNDREDS of junior doctors offered hospital positions have had their job offers withdrawn after a recruitment error.

As many as 1,500 junior doctors due to start their new positions in August now face uncertainty over their future.

The British Medical Association said some trainees had put down deposits on homes after receiving an offer.

Some were given their result as early as April 26, only to receive news of the administrative blunder on Friday.

Those affected had been offered jobs in 24 different fields through ST3 Recruitment, a nationally coordinated system.

But last week the Royal College of Physicians found some candidates had been given the wrong interview marks after an IT error, leading to a ‘significant number’ of incorrect rankings.

In a letter to all those with offers, the RCP said it was ‘deeply sorry’ it would have to rerun the offers process, with junior doctors waiting until May 14 for the offers process to begin again.

In a joint statement, the chairman of the BMA council, Chaand Nagpaul, and the chairman of the BMA junior doctors committee, Jeeves Wijesuriya, said: ‘This has caused extreme anxiety for trainees who have been offered, and made life choices based upon, what were ostensibly guaranteed jobs.’