A Safer Way Forward for the NHS

With the UK’s political background changing under the new coalition government, NHS hospitals all over the country have to be innovative cost-savers to meet the new budget requirements. One obvious way to reduce costs is to examine staff wage levels.

There has been a recent shift in the medical job market as many permanent doctors have found that by taking jobs as locums they can achieve both a higher wage and the experience needed to advance their career. This has meant that many experienced NHS doctors who trained in the UK are charging exponential rates for their services. The staff that actually make decisions on doctors jobs are then left with a difficult decision; whether to cut costs and employ cheaper foreign doctors.

There has been a lot of discussion in the press about the ethical and professional difficulties of employing these cheaper doctors. For instance, just because a doctor is “foreign” and potentially may have a poor level of English does not make them an inadequate doctor. They may have a wealth of clinical experience in comparison to another doctor who may have perfect English language skills. Therein lays the problem. All doctors need to undergo a comprehensive interview process. Qualifications should be stringently checked as should the level of skill and experience that the doctor has. Furthermore, there should be a key focus into the doctor’s references.

As the medical profession has a wide range of locum jobs there has been an influx of medical recruitment agencies eager to take their commission once a candidate has been placed into a role. This haphazard approach to filling doctor vacancies is what could pose the risk to the NHS’s reputation and of course patient’s health.

However there are a few medical recruitment agencies which have both the experience and the contacts within the NHS and are committed to working with their clients to ensure that both patient care and cost cutting is not compromised. It is vital that foreign doctors do gain the locum experience that they need but in the right environment. Midas Medical Recruitment has been working in partnership with the NHS to design innovative programmes which helps both the employer and employee.

These programmes which are focused on both short term and long term locum vacancies and aim to minimise the risk posed to the NHS when hiring foreign staff. It is a big step forward as by working together the NHS and agency can find the right solution for the staffing needs. Careers do need to be built for locum doctors but with a solid framework underpinning it; this will undoubtedly improve the quality of staff for hospitals.

Midas Medical Recruitment covers locum jobs and permanent vacancies at all levels, our database selection process mirrors the NHS grading system ensuring that our recruiters always find the best matched doctors for our clients and visa versa.
Visit http://www.midasmedicalrecruitment.com for more information.