Sources of information you may find useful, these guides have been created as resources for people working in health boards to assist them with accommodation queries and maybe specific to the hospital location or area. Please see the links below for further information.
Links to the NHS International Recruitment Tool Kit - which is an interactive guide to encourage and enable good practice in the NHS
HMO Properties for International Recruited Healthcare Professionals
Step by Step Guide to Renting in Scotland - NHS Scotland Rental Guide
Welcome to NHS Lanarkshire Booklet
Below is a link to a collection of National(Uk) resources
A list of nominated contacts to support new IMG within the boards.
Health Board |
Contact |
Department |
Email address |
Ayrshire & Arran |
Hugh Neill |
Anaesthesia & Intensive Care |
|
Borders |
Srihari Vallabhajousula |
Surgery |
Srihari.Vallabhajousula@nhs.scot |
Dumfries & Galloway |
Anne-Marie Coxon Nadeeka Rathnamalala |
Medicine Renal |
|
Western Isles |
Neil Maclean Caroline Ross |
Obs/Gyn Med. Ed. |
caroline.ross7@nhs.scot or wi.csa@nhs.scot |
Fife |
Babar Akbar Kimberley Steel |
General Practice Palliative Medicine |
fife.medicaleducation@nhs.scot |
Forth Valley |
Alison Mackenzie |
Medicine |
|
Grampian |
Kim Milne Marion Slater Roby Rajan |
Acute Medicine Geriatrics Endocrinology |
|
Greater Glasgow & Clyde |
Adnan Tariq Andy Mackay Ihab Shaheen |
Endocrinology Critical Care Paediatrics |
|
Golden Jubilee |
Fahd Mahmood |
Orthopaedics |
fahd.mahmood3@gjnh.scot.nhs.uk |
Highland |
Satinder Bal Suddhajit Sen |
Medicine Orthopaedics |
|
Lanarkshire |
Farhat Mushtaq H Laura McGregor Sumaiya Cassim |
Hairmyres Monklands Wishaw |
Farhat.mushtaq@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk |
Lothian |
Goran Zangana Ishwinder Thethy |
Acute Medicine Acute Medicine |
|
Orkney |
Huw Thomas |
General Practice |
huw.thomas5@nhs.scot |
Shetland |
Pauline Wilson |
Medicine |
|
Tayside |
Achyut Valluri |
Acute Medicine |
Are you new to UK practice or is this your first post in a Scottish Hospital (NHS Scotland)?
These are currently available in the following health boards - Lothian, Tayside, Greater Glasgow and Clyde and Forth Valley.
Simulation courses, to help IMGs with some of the challenges they might experience if new to practicing in the UK. Not assessed. Purely a learning experience in a safe environment.
You may have already been approached to attend.
If not, and you think this might be beneficial, please contact the following:
Health Board | Contact Details |
NHS Lothian | goran.zangana@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk |
NHS Tayside | achyut.valluri2@nhs.scot |
NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde |
mark.ullrich@ggc.scot.nhs.uk or kirsty.barnes4@ggc.scot.nhs.uk |
NHS Forth Valley | fv.scschf@nhs.scot |
NHS Scotland International Recruitment Service
Driving in the UK on a non-UK licence
Police Scotland Tel: 101 (non-emergency) or 999 (emergency)
Spikkin Scots: Listen to the different dialects of Scotland (The Press and Journal)
The following websites have been identified as being of particular use to IMG doctors who are preparing to begin work in Scotland.
Scottish Trainee Enhanced Programme (STEP) - GP specific but other specialties are now looking to develop similar courses
The names given to different grades of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals in the UK may differ from what you are used to. Doctors in training or trainee refers to doctors who are in clinical training. They have completed a medical degree and could have up to eight years' experience working as a hospital doctor, or up to three years in General Practice. All doctors in training work under the supervision of a senior doctor. This could be a Hospital Consultant, GP (general practitioner) or SAS (staff grade, associate specialist and specialty) doctor, depending on specialty and location. Doctors who perform surgery may, due to historical reasons, use the titles 'Mr', 'Mrs', 'Miss' or 'Ms' instead. A doctor that is a university professor may also use the title ‘Professor’ instead of 'Dr'.
Titles of Doctor in Training |
Description |
FY1 |
Foundation year one junior doctor |
FY2 |
Foundation year two junior doctor |
IMT |
Internal Medicine Trainee |
CST |
Core Surgical Trainee |
SHO |
Senior house officer (old fashioned term for grades between FY2 and ST). The use of this term should be discouraged. The Deanery and Service Leads do not support the use of this term as it creates uncertainty about the level of experience and competence of an individual doctor which can confuse staff and colleagues. |
GPST |
General Practice Specialty Trainee |
ST |
Specialty Trainee who is a doctor in training in a hospital specialty – the term can be associated with a number which signifies the amount of years spent in training in the specialty, e.g. ST4 psychiatry |
Other members of the MDT (Multi-disciplinary Team) |
Description |
Nurse |
Nurses in the UK have a degree in nursing and work in either adult, children, mental health, or learning disability care |
Ward Sister/Charge Nurse |
A charge nurse is a nurse who is 'in charge' of a ward in the hospital or other healthcare facility where they work. These nurses perform many of the tasks that general nurses do, but also have some supervisory and managerial responsibilities |
Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) |
CNSs have specialist knowledge of a particular area of nursing e.g. cancer, diabetes, and palliative care |
Healthcare Care Assistant (HCA) |
HCAs work closely with patients to ensure their comfort and safety under the direction of a qualified professional (usually a nurse). They help patients with personal care including infection prevention and control, food, and personal hygiene |
Physiotherapist (PT) |
Physiotherapists help patients recover from injury, illness, and surgery through physical rehabilitation |
Occupational Therapist (OT) |
OTs consider all of a patient's needs - physical, psychological, social and environmental. They can help people overcome the effects of disability caused by illness, ageing or accident so that they can carry out everyday tasks or occupations |
Roles and Responsibilities Checklist
Click here for the roles and responsibilities checklist.
Current News Articles (June 2023) :
A King's Fund study showed that that the UK has strikingly low levels of key clinical staff, including doctors and nurses, compared to 19 other countries that were included in the study. The study also found that the UK is heavily reliant on foreign-trained staff. Remuneration for some clinical groups appears to be less competitive in the UK than in peer countries.
Source: How does the NHS compare to the health care systems of other countries (kingsfund.org.uk)y
Recently Published Articles of Interest
, , . International medical graduates' experiences before and after migration: A meta-ethnography of qualitative studies. Med Educ. 2022; 56(5): 504-515. doi:10.1111/medu.14708
Al-Haddad, M. Facilitating international medical graduates' acculturation: From theory to practice. Med Educ. 2023; 1-13. doi:10.1111/medu.15175
Al-Haddad M, Mulholland C, Gardner J. Burnout in International Medical Graduate Trainees in the United Kingdom Compared to Domestic Medical Graduate Trainees. Analysis of Data from the GMC's National Training Survey in 2019 and 2021. Perspect Med Educ. 2023 Jun 15;12(1):228-236. doi: 10.5334/pme.1036 PMID: 37334110; PMCID: PMC10275157.
This page was last updated on: 12.12.2023 at 10.39