Junior docs – recruitment system works

Hicom Technology has announced that 18,000 junior doctors have successfully completed the registration and application stages of the regional doctors’ appointments process through its I:CAMS online system.

The company has deployed I:CAMS across 11 of the 13 recruiting UK deaneries and is hoping to work with the remaining two next year.

Deaneries were given responsibility for recruitment following the collapse of the national, online Medical Training Application System (MTAS) in 2007, amid more widespread concern about the Modernising Medical Careers reforms.

Hicom director John Sanderson said the company had been working with deaneries and trusts on careers issues for some years when MTAS was withdrawn, which prompted a number of clients to ask it for help with the new recruitment process.

“We have been working in the healthcare IT market since 1986, developing a product suite called Intrepid, which manages training, education and career progression,” he said. “We were also dealing with pre-registration house officers some years ago, and had provided deaneries with a system to get junior doctors into those places.

“I:CAMS came about because of renewed interest in that system after the failure of MTAS. A couple of deanery clients asked us to come up with something to help them. So we restructured our product and put it online.”

I:CAMS allows deaneries to develop their own application forms, which are held on regional databases. Junior doctors can use I:CAMS to register their interest in jobs, apply and track the progress of their applications online. The system can also apply rules to the applications to help with long and short-listing.

“Unlike MTAS, this is a regional project, so there is an element of flexibility for the deaneries to structure things as they need to structure them,” said Sanderson. “Forms, for example, can be slightly different in Manchester and Bristol.”

Mark Hinchcliffe, business development manager, said that many deaneries had relied on paper-based processes to fill vacancies, but this imposed “a huge administrative task” on them.

He said I:CAMS simplified the process and therefore generated time and cost savings, as well as making the application process as “simple and stress free” as possible for doctors.

Hicom Technology is hoping to be a supplier for the wider adoption of online speciality recruitment in 2010.

Link: Hicom Technology