I had a great night out on Monday watching Adam Kay reading diary entries from his book 'This is Going to Hurt' about his experiences as a junior doctor in the NHS. It was hilarious, shocking and hard warming in equal measures (actually, the songs were by far the best bit so have a look on YouTube).
We all know that the NHS is critically under resourced both in terms of people and finances however it's still quite shocking to hear the stories - like Adam Kay's - from the front line. This week I also heard about this great innovative refugee retraining programme set-up by Sandwell & West Birmingham NHS Trust to help unemployed, medically qualified refugees and migrants back in to work. A win:win situation giving migrants the opportunity to use their medical skills and helping us plug some of the skills gaps - we need more innovations like this to keep the NHS alive and kicking.
As reported by The Guardian, a refugee retraining programme in the Black Country is hoping to expand and help improve the current healthcare recruitment situation The most recent NHS England figures show that there are currently more than 100,000 vacancies for doctors and nurses in the UK. In fact, the problem could get worse very soon. Nine per cent of licensed doctors in the country are European – something Brexit could well impact. In the West Midlands alone, 10% of all nursing staff are EU nationals. In 2017, Lawrence Kelly, widening participation project manager at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, set up the Use-It programme to help unemployed, medically qualified refugees and migrants in Sandwell and west Birmingham find NHS work.
https://practicebusiness.co.uk/refugee-retraining-programme-could-help-nhs-recruitment-crisis/
