Medical Support Worker Roles - COVID 19

The NHS has created a new role that will allow overseas-qualified doctors to work who have not yet registered with the GMC.

The requirements for the role are:

IELTS 7.5 (with no single section scoring below 7, ie reading, writing, speaking and listening) or OET (BBBB)
A medical degree from your home country
Right to work in the UK

Full Job Description

Duties include:

• Carry out assigned duties and tasks under the direction of the doctor with whom they are scheduled to work, ensuring that the care is of a high standard.

• Assist in clinical emergencies.

• Undertake clinical procedures such as taking and recording clinical observations and completing relevant documentation such as NEWS scoring; taking blood samples; blood cultures; venous blood gases; insert and flush peripheral cannula; perform ECGs

• Accompany consultant on ward round, list jobs, scribe in patients' medical records, complete tasks and collate results and present to the directing doctor or consultant;

• Perform diagnostic/therapeutic procedures, subject to training and experience;

• Communicate with medical and other clinical staff and support prompt completion and transmission of discharge summaries once deemed competent by supervising consultant to carry out the list of duties above.

• Undertake relevant refresher training for clinical procedures.

• Collect data about care performance e.g. for clinical audit.

• Record and present findings in a manner consistent with local policies and procedures

• Take an active part in all required mandatory training and induction, and in particular undertake training in maintenance of infection prevention and control procedures, when and how to use Personal Protective Equipment and the rules regarding management of patients with confirmed or suspected COVID19.

• Maintain knowledge of and work in accordance with Trust policies, procedures and protocols.

• Prioritise own workload as directed by senior staff.

Medical Support Workers will work as part of a multi-disciplinary professional team. They will undertake a range of essential routine clinical tasks under the supervision of the relevant consultant, GP or GP Nurse Supervisor in charge of the clinical area in which they are employed.

This role may be used to support medical staff in GP practices, critical care units or in other secondary or community care settings. Please note, the English Language requirements remain the same as with the GMC licence process, IELTS, OET or Cambridge Equivalent. If you, or your clients do not yet have the required English Language level RefuAid are still running online OET classes for which you can enrol here (there are limited spaces but we currently have capacity): https://refuaid.secure.force.com/languageapplication

The role is suitable for those who have had medical training but have been out of clinical practice for a significant period and/or haven’t yet completed their UK accreditation exams.

The Medical Support Worker role is a paid role that will offer individuals the opportunity to demonstrate foundation-level medical training competency.

The application process has been streamlined into the existing returnees survey. Refugee doctors will need to apply to work as Medical Support Workers, when prompted in the survey, please write “Medical Support Worker” in the questions that asks, “in what capacity do you wish to work?” The survey is here: https://nhsdigital.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8q4cFuRzm1j4maN

There is a lot of further information here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/returning-clinicians/faqs-doctors/eligibility-and-gmc-issues/#i-have-a-gmc-number-but-have-never-worked-in-the-nhs-having-come-from-another-country-can-i-help (please note if you have previously looked on this website it has been updated as of this morning).

If you or your clients have already completed the survey, you will need to re-do it with the changes recommended above.