The diagnosis was faulty and the remedy made things worse. Warnings that the build-up of symptoms was pointing to full-scale breakdown went unheeded. The setback has been serious and recovery will take some time. Modernising Medical Careers (MMC) was the prescription for improving the training system for doctors in the UK. For the past year we have had numerous examples of how MMC is failing junior doctors at the point in their careers where they move into specialist posts. As junior doctors took to the streets in unprecedented protest, backed in many cases by their consultants, Patricia Hewitt, then Health Secretary in Tony Blair's cabinet, set up an independent inquiry into the debacle.

Yesterday, the man she appointed to lead it, Professor Sir John Tooke, recommended a radical overhaul of MMC. His proposals should be implemented swiftly but with proper account of local situations. As Sir John said at the beginning of his task, seldom has an issue provoked such an outcry from the medical profession. What happens now, however, is crucial, because many doctors whose skills the NHS needs are still without a permanent position.

The chaos that prompted the inquiry was the result of several factors coming together. A new system of online applications for posts, the Medical Training Application Service (Mtas), which did not allow doctors to include their CVs in the initial stages, led to complaints that the best-qualified candidates were not interviewed for particular posts. Although that system has now been shelved, its shortcomings compounded the separate problem of junior doctors in the new, accelerated scheme completing their training at exactly the same time as the last cohort from the previous scheme. The result was a logjam caused by 32,649 applicants competing for 23,247 specialist training posts. Allocating all posts by August 1 added to the confusion.