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At Chesterfield Royal Hospital, we value learning and teamwork. We know that starting work in a new country can be challenging, but we are here to help you. Our orientation programs and ongoing training will support you in settling in and succeeding. Together, we will work towards providing the best care for our patients. Welcome, and we look forward to the positive contributions you will make to our hospital and community.
In this section, you will find helpful information on being a medical graduate in the UK.
The GMC provides an excellent half-day introduction via their free ‘Welcome to UK Practice’ which is designed to help doctors who gained their primary medical outside the UK and registered with a licence to practise within the last 12 months. It offers practical guidance about ethical scenarios you may encounter, including areas where you’ll encounter differences in the UK, such as consent, confidentiality, raising concerns, care for children and young people, and prescribing. It will also give you the opportunity to connect with other doctors coming from abroad. These workshops were delivered online due to COVID restrictions but they are now starting to be delivered in person. This Trust regularly hosts this programme, offering places to IMGs in other trusts in the region, and your HR contact will advise you when the next session is likely to take place after you join.
The GMC also offers a wealth of helpful information online which you may find useful to read before you arrive in the UK. As a minimum, you should read Good Medical Practice:
To get a doctors.org.uk email address you will need to join at https:/
It is free to join (you need your GMC registration details) and on joining you will receive an @doctors.org.uk email address with 6GB of free storage.
It is a legal and professional requirement that you ensure you have adequate and appropriate insurance or indemnity arrangements in place covering the full scope of your medical practice in the UK. The cover you need is dependent on your circumstances and must be in place by the time you begin to practise.
For the work you are contracted to carry out for this Trust, you will be indemnified through the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST) which is administered by NHS Resolution.
You should also consider whether you need to take out additional professional insurance or indemnity for work that is not cover by NHS indemnity, and to access personal regulatory and medico-legal support and advice. Medical Defence Organisations offer indemnity for clinical negligence claims, and advice for members including support and representation with disciplinary and regulatory investigations, coroner’s inquests, and criminal investigations into members’ professional practice. They also offer medico legal advice, usually including an out of hours emergency helpline 24 hours a day.
Online Learning Resources : https:/
- Introduction to working in the NHS
- Social aspects of UK clinical practice
- Ethical and legal aspects of UK clinical practice
- Patient safety aspects of UK clinical practice
- Professional aspects of clinical practice
- Personal Health and Wellbeing in UK clinical practice.
This website has excellent online learning modules, which will help you transition to NHS work. We encourage you to complete the following modules before and during your placement.
The learning modules can be accessed by using your GMC number to register on the website.
https://
Please complete this and send a copy of your completion certificate before arriving in the UK.
The following three key clinical topics are aimed at doctors from overseas working in various NHS clinical settings. The doctors in training have highlighted that they have found the highlighted topics as the most challenging during their training. Completing the modules will support the post-graduate doctors in training (PGDIT) to provide high-quality patient care.
- Blood transfusion and consent.
- Safe prescribing and venous thromboembolism (VTE).
- Mental Capacity Act and death certification.
https://www.gmc-uk.org/about/what-we-do-and-why/learning-and-support/workshops-for-doctors/welcome-to-uk-practice/doctors
SNOT-PD:
- Self - can you sort the problem out yourself? Is the answer on this website or accessible via the Chesterfield Intranet
- Other - consider asking your Trainee Representative, your GPST WhatsApp group or the Programme Administrator for advice
- Trainer - see if your own CS or ES knows the answer
- Programme Director (PD) - only when you have exhausted all the above and only then, contact your PD.
When prescribing in general practice you should refer to the Derbyshire Medicines Management website:
http://www.derbyshiremedicinesmanagement.nhs.uk/medicines-management
This provides medical guidance for Derbyshire and should be your first port of call when finding out what medication is appropriate for indication. This includes the local antimicrobial guidelines.
In Derbyshire there is a “Traffic Light Classification” of medications which is available on Medicines Management – this outlines which medications you are allowed to prescribe in general practice and which medications are not allowed to be prescribed or have restrictions placed on them:
- Green – suitable to prescribe in general practice
- Grey – not recommended for use except in exceptional circumstances
- Amber – medications initiated by secondary care. GP can only prescribe under a shared care protocol when a patient is on a stable dose.
- Red – medications that can only be prescribed by secondary care services. Not to be prescribed in general practice.
- DNP – DO NOT PRESCRIBE. These medications would require an application for an Individual Funding Request (IFR) to allow them to be initiated in general practice.
Online Clinical Resources
Local Clinical Guidelines - Derbyshire Medicines Management:
http://www.derbyshiremedicinesmanagement.nhs.uk/medicines-management
Southern Derbyshire Shared Care Pathology Guidelines - this is the guideline that you should use for abnormal blood results and associated referral criteria - https://www.uhdb.nhs.uk/shared-care-pathology-guidelines
National Guidelines: https://cks.nice.org.uk/
When prescribing in general practice you should refer to the Derbyshire Medicines Management website:
http://www.derbyshiremedicinesmanagement.nhs.uk/medicines-management
This provides medical guidance for Derbyshire and should be your first port of call when finding out what medication is appropriate for indication. This includes the local antimicrobial guidelines.
In Derbyshire there is a “Traffic Light Classification” of medications which is available on Medicines Management – this outlines which medications you are allowed to prescribe in general practice and which medications are not allowed to be prescribed or have restrictions placed on them:
- Green – suitable to prescribe in general practice
- Grey – not recommended for use except in exceptional circumstances
- Amber – medications initiated by secondary care. GP can only prescribe under a shared care protocol when a patient is on a stable dose.
- Red – medications that can only be prescribed by secondary care services. Not to be prescribed in general practice.
- DNP – DO NOT PRESCRIBE. These medications would require an application for an Individual Funding Request (IFR) to allow them to be initiated in general practice.
Online Clinical Resources
Local Clinical Guidelines - Derbyshire Medicines Management:
http://www.derbyshiremedicinesmanagement.nhs.uk/medicines-management
Southern Derbyshire Shared Care Pathology Guidelines - this is the guideline that you should use for abnormal blood results and associated referral criteria - https://www.uhdb.nhs.uk/shared-care-pathology-guidelines
National Guidelines: https://cks.nice.org.uk/
Please do consider joining BMA, who can support you with contractual advice. There may be a discount for the doctors who are new to the UK.
Various country-specific organisations might be able to help with cultural transition and networking opportunities:
- Nigerian doctor’s association: https://www.ngpuk.uk/join
- British Asian doctor’s association: https://www.bapio.co.uk/
- Egyptian doctor’s association: https://www.bema-uk.org/
- Pakistani doctor’s association: https://www.appsukfoundation.org.uk/
- Syrian doctor’s association: https://www.sb-ms.org/
- Refugee doctor’s organisation: https://www.jcore.org.uk/refugee-doctors
- Burmese doctors FB group: https://en-gb.facebook.com/BDDAUK/
- Asian Association Chesterfield: https://asianassociationchesterfield.org/
- Kannada Balagan Organisation: https://www.kannadabalaga.org.uk/