At Remedium, we believe that international recruitment is essential to building a sustainable and robust workforce for the NHS. International recruitment is not new to the NHS; it has relied on international staff since its inception in 1946. However, the scale of international recruitment has changed – with a growing population, and growing demands on health services, international recruitment is increasingly essential to the NHS.
There are not enough medical school places to fill the existing NHS vacancies– and doctors beginning medical school now will not be fully qualified for upwards of 6 years. To provide the best patient care possible, with a full workforce, it has never been more crucial for trusts to recruit and retain staff, and international recruitment is key.
The journey to the NHS
Recruiting large quantities of candidates at once is great for filling vacancies cost effectively and efficiently, though onboarding this volume at once can be a challenge. Working within existing processes at the Trust, Remedium were able to assist in the onboarding of new hires, reducing administrative burden and ensuring the new joiners were supported at every stage of their journey to the NHS.
In November 2022, Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust and Remedium held recruitment drives in Mumbai and Kerala, with the aim to hire 50 doctors across several specialties. This followed a pilot trip in 2019 that saw 13 doctors join the Trust across Acute Medicine, Radiology and Emergency Medicine. Both trips exceeded the Trust’s hiring goals, with 54 doctors joining Mid Yorkshire as a result of the most recent trip. With the support of Remedium, the Trust have successfully onboarded all new recruits.
Following these trips, Remedium and Mid Yorkshire recently hosted a welcome event for the new hires. The event saw Len Richards, Chief Executive at The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, formally welcome candidates to the Trust. The full-day event also featured talks from Trust staff who were instrumental in the success of the project. At Remedium, we know how important it is to follow up with new hires to ensure retention- and we believe in end-to-end support for our candidates, which is why our support does not end when new hires land in the UK. We pride ourselves on our candidate aftercare, and our partnership with Mid Yorkshire is a testament to this.
How international recruitment works for Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust
International recruitment has enabled Mid Yorkshire to fill a significant number of vacancies with skilled and experienced clinicians at pace, ensuring the Trust can maintain high standards of patient care and staff satisfaction. The Trust also benefitted from being able to interview candidates face-to-face. As Dr. Ian Wilson, Deputy Medical Director at the Trust, puts it: “Recruiting is expensive; getting it wrong costs more.” Though interviews are possible over Teams, there is no substitute for being in the same room as someone, and data suggests there is a higher conversion rate to sustained employment from a face-to-face interview.
Dr. Wilson added: “There’s been a constant additional need for doctors in the NHS for as long as anyone can remember – and the UK has been dependent on employing people from overseas. More recently, the demands of service and patients means there is an increased demand for doctors at all levels. It’s important you get the right person at the right time for the organisation. In the last few years, we put together an initiative with Remedium to ensure candidates we interview are the right fit.
“I wouldn’t hesitate to use a recruitment partner again – but it must be the right partner. Remedium have learnt with us, adapted their offering to what we needed, and it has been a partnership that has worked very well.”
If you want to read more about our work with Mid Yorkshire, please find our case study on their international recruitment project here, and hear the Trust’s perspective here.
We are on a mission to solve the UK healthcare staffing crisis and we know international recruitment is crucial to developing a sustainable workforce model in the NHS. If you would like to find out more about Remedium’s international project offering, contact us today to find out how we can support your organisation.
