Thanks to CW+ funding, the Clinical Attachment Programme at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has already supported hundreds of international doctors.
In this short video Kwaku Baryeh, North West London International Medical Graduate Education Fellow, explains how the programme works, and Tetiana Gubka, Senior Clinical Fellow at West Middlesex University Hospital, shares how it helps international doctors take their first steps in the NHS.
Watch the video or read the transcript below.
Hear from Kwaku and Tetiana about how the Clinical Attachment Training Programme at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital supports international medical graduates with structured mentorship, tailored education and career guidance
Kwaku and Tetiana's story: transcript
What is the Clinical Attachment Training Programme?
Kwaku:
The Clinical Attachment Training Programme is essentially an observership programme for international medical graduates who want to gain some experience in the NHS.
The main difference between our attachment programme and some of the others that exist is that we offer a tailored educational programme, but in addition, it’s also quite structured. So rather than turning up onto a ward and nobody knowing who you are or why you’re there, you have an assigned mentor and you have an assigned place to be at any given time.
Having that tailored education is key to helping people gain the skills and knowledge they need to thrive within the NHS.
‘They were like parents to me’
Tetiana:
Originally, I am from Ukraine. I got my GMC registration in April 2022. By that time, I already was in the UK because of all the things going on back in my country because of the war, and I’m not from a safe region.
I started to look for a job. However, it’s a bit of a challenging task if you don’t have any NHS experience! At that point I heard about the clinical attachment run at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. It was the very first programme, and luckily, I got a place.
My experience with the Clinical Attachment Programme was excellent. The team I worked with was absolutely amazing. They were extremely supportive, they showed me a lot of things, how it’s done, how I should communicate… They showed me how to work within the system.
They helped me to prepare for interview as well. We ran some training interview sessions and they helped me to learn how to answer tricky questions, particularly about soft skills. They were like parents to me!
The role of CW+ and the programme's impact
Kwaku:
The impact of CW+’s funding has been immeasurable.
They gave us the funding to start the programme. When we started back in 2022, it was really just an idea, but to get it off the ground we needed the funding, and that funding allowed us to provide places for refugee doctors. It gave us the funding to set up faculty development, because we had to recruit the mentors to support the doctors.
It really just gave us the impetus to get the programme started, and without it I don’t think we’d be where we are today.
Tetiana:
If the programme didn’t exist, I would say I would struggle and I would be absolutely overwhelmed. I would recommend that international doctors who are thinking of applying should just go for it, because it’s very helpful.
Kwaku:
We had quite a lot of representation from Ukrainian doctors and Ukrainian refugee doctors. We’re actually now spread across several continents, from South America to Africa to Asia to parts of Europe.
We’ve had just shy of 400 doctors complete the programme. Of those, nearly a third are now working within the NHS and about 40 have chosen to stay in our Trust, which is amazing.
It’s also a testament to the calibre of candidates who come through.
Tetiana:
If you come to the UK to work in the NHS from abroad as a foreigner, it can be an absolutely stressful experience if you have no one to guide you, if you have no one to support you, and I would say this is an amazing job that is done by the Trust to give an opportunity for international medical graduates.
It helps you to survive and navigate in the very beginning of your journey as a doctor in the UK.
Looking forward
Kwaku:
We do have examples of some Trusts replicating our model with our support, and they have been successful so far.
It’s still early days, but we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished. We started off being on a single site of our Trust and we now have placements in five other Trusts with us acting as a central hub.
I think if we could establish a similar sort of set-up in other regions, it could be quite a powerful thing. It would mean that we would be able to support far greater numbers of international medical graduates.
By funding this programme, CW+ is helping the NHS recruit and retain skilled doctors from around the world. Find out more about our Grants programme.
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