Consultant recruitment: Cumbria and Lancashire SHA in association with Lancashire Care NHS Trust

Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority (SHA) recruited five difficult to fill substantive consultant vacancies within its Trusts. The medical and dental workforce supply project manager from the SHA shared his experiences of this process.

• Background
• Ten-day visit
• Result
• Cost
• Experience of the process

Background

The key objectives of the initiative were to:

• Fill longstanding, vacant substantive consultant posts suitable for international recruitment
• Increase the trusts' consultant numbers and achieve trust staffing targets
• Reduce the spend on locum staff
• Save money on recruitment - the average recruitment agency fee is £25k per consultant
• To instil confidence in the benefits of international recruitment to the trust.

In January 2005 Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority approached trusts to discuss the options available to fill outstanding, "difficult-to-fill" substantive consultant vacancies within their Trusts. Many of these posts had been vacant for some time and were being staffed by expensive locum services.

The original plan was to organise a trip to India to recruit consultants from a variety of specialties. Lancashire Care NHS Trust agreed to proceed with the initiative. The medical director and director of human resources visited India in July 2005 to meet a number of psychiatrists who had applied to work in the England after Department of Health advertisements. This visit was arranged and facilitated by the medical advisor to the Department of Health, and Priyanka Kapoor - working at the British High Commission in Delhi.

Before this visit, our doctor had screened numerous application forms and made arrangements for doctors to attend a seminar in Delhi and meet the trust representatives. All of these psychiatrists had either already achieved or were soon to achieve their specialist registration. Each psychiatrist was seen individually to assess their suitability for invitation to an international recruitment event in October 2005 organised by myself at Cumbria and Lancashire SHA and another representative at Lancashire Care NHS Trust.

Ten candidates were short listed from the 22 applicants to be invited to attend an interview programme in England. They were invited to formally apply for five posts which had been advertised in accordance to the guidelines set for consultant appointments.

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Ten-day visit

The Mayor of Preston welcomed the doctors at the start of their ten-day visit in October 2005. We organised a number of events including an information fair at a local hotel with speakers from the British Medical Association (BMA), The Medical Defence Union (MDU) and NHS Pensions Agency.

We also had representatives from the following areas:

• local bank to advise the consultants about opening a bank account and the British taxation system
• applications manager from the General Medical Council (GMC) to help the doctors with registration issues.

During the programme we arranged visits to the hospital trusts where the vacant positions existed as well as a trip to the Lake District National Park to show the candidates the beauty of our region.

To help them adjust to life in the England we provided them with information about owning and driving a car in this country, and showed them around sample properties for rental or purchase.

We started links between the candidates and the local Indian community by taking them to the Hindu temple in Preston and introduced them to the chairman of the Preston Faith Forum and the chairman of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO).

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Result

We held formal panel interviews at the end of the ten-day visit for five positions within the trust: two general adult; two older adult and one substance misuse. We then made conditional offers (subject to Criminal Records Bureau, occupational health and references checks) for these posts and were accepted by five of the ten candidates.

The successful candidates will start in February 2006. All the unsuccessful candidates were given feedback by Lancashire Care NHS Trust and our lead doctor involved in the project with the hope of getting them other suitable posts in the NHS. Cumbria and Lancashire SHA are pleased at the success of the recruitment initiative.

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Cost

Cumbria and Lancashire Strategic Health Authority funded the cost of travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses of the consultants who attended.

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Experience of the process

It was time consuming and hard work, however it achieved the results we set out to from the start. Another bonus is that the candidates' experience of the recruitment and visit process was very positive and included the following quotes:

• "Thanks for all the hospitality and support you offered us"
• "You ... made our journey this far so pleasant and welcoming, enhancing it with your personal touch. Your staff made the entire process of preparing for the consultant interviews and co-ordinating all the things needed to make life easier and settling here easier, like a breeze"
• "You made my stay in UK something memorable...I don't think I have ever received this level of hospitality in my life."