Overseas NHS Workers Day

An international recruitment drive is underway to employ paramedics and senior clinical advisors from India, Australia and New Zealand.

The campaign follows last year’s successful recruitment of 30 newly qualified paramedics from Australia and New Zealand, all of whom are now fully operational across Leeds and Sheffield.

A recent recruitment trip to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne has resulted in 37 job offers being made to newly qualified paramedics following a successful interview process. The first group will arrive in Yorkshire in June.

Gavin Austin, Senior Programme Lead, said: “We are working in collaboration with Health Education England, South Central Ambulance Service and South East Coast Ambulance Service on this year’s recruitment campaign.

“We have built links with Queensland University of Technology, Australian Catholic University and Western Sydney University and plan to work with them to develop a sustainable pathway for newly qualified paramedics who want to come work in the UK.”

Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) has been successful in recruiting nurses from Kerela in India to work as senior clinical advisors in the NHS 111 call centre in Wakefield. Job offers have been accepted by 15 applicants following four days of interviews.

Karen Cooper, Project Manager – Service Development (IUC) said: “In India, there is no shortage of nurses as they train double what they need so many already have experience of working away from home which does not faze them. Our jobs are much better paid and offer greater opportunities for development. Over there, once you get to staff nurse level, there are few opportunities for progression, so they are very excited about the opportunity of working in Yorkshire.”

The new starters are due to arrive in three separate groups from May. They will then embark on six months of training, firstly the Nursing and Midwifery Council Objective Structured Clinical Examinations and then a course focused on NHS Pathways, the clinical tool used for assessing, triaging and directing patients who call 111 to urgent and emergency care services.

The recruitment opportunity was made possible after the West Yorkshire NHS Integrated Care Board formed a Global Health Partnership with the Government of Kerala, India. The partnership provides an ethical and sustainable supply of nurses from Kerala to West Yorkshire, as well as opportunities for global health learning and education.

We will be sharing our efforts to recruit from an international market as part of today’s Overseas NHS Workers Day. ​​​​​​​

Founded in 2021 by The Doctors’ Association UK, Overseas NHS Workers Day was created to celebrate the amazing contributions of international staff working in healthcare.