Junior Doctors Online Recruitment System

Following entry is a record in the “Catalogue of Catastrophe” – a list of failed and troubled projects from around the world.


Medical Training Application System – UK
Date :
May 2007    Cost :$12M

Synopsis :
Junior doctors forced to reapply directly to hospitals after a new centralized system for matching doctors and postings disintegrates.  System left many of the UK’s most qualified junior doctors without training posts.  Publicity of the problems resulted in journalists identifying significant security flaws that allowed them to see confidential data.  Government initially withdraw the system claiming issues were minor.  Government later forced to admit system was seriously flawed.  Government eventually ditches the system altogether.

Contributing factors as reported in the press :
Volume related performance problems.  Missing requirements.  Design errors.  Bugs that resulted in data being lost.  Security flaws that resulted in loss of confidential data.

Reference links :

  1. Wikipedia article – Medical Training Application System
  2. Hewitt apology for training chaos
  3. Humiliated Hewitt in junior doctors climb-down

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