The Power of the Blog

MTAS is a government computer project that, as usual, has gone horribly wrong. MTAS has been used to centralize and streamline the way doctors apply for their jobs. The result is the creation of some kind of lunatic, with doctors having to re-apply for the jobs they had found quite nicely under the 'read a job advert - send in a CV - get an interview' method.

Channel 4 revealed this week that the computer system was wide open to the public with details such as names, addresses and sexual orientation of doctors on display. Not only is this dangerous, it is totally illegal, and raises serious questions about the other New Labour IT disasters that just seem to be mounting up.

The MTAS website is now 'closed for essential maintenance' - that's convenient!

Is it anything to do with Dr Crippen, a widely read GP-blogger:

It is, I suppose some sort of journalistic coup that, shortly after Dr
Crippen phoned Mike Clement, the MTAS Project Manager at the DoH, the decision
was taken to close down the MTAS site.

There was no alternative.

'Today's news, revealed in NHS BLOG DOCTOR, that it was possible for doctors to access each other's applications and personal information by simply inputting a random number was a gross breach of data security. The MTAS site had to be closed to protect that information, to protect the doctors.A lesser concern, but still an
important one, is that this breach of data security may result in a criminal
prosecution against the MTAS administrators.

Maybe even against the blessed Patricia herself.

And now a trivial matter. Or a matter that seems consistently
to be treated as trivial by the department. What happens to the doctors? MTAS,
for all its failings, is their source of information about forthcoming
interviews and appointments. There is nowhere else for them to turn.'