The British Medical Association, and the Refugee Council have set up a joint
database of refugee doctors in the UK.
The database, funded by the Department of Health, gives the location of
refugee doctors available for work in the UK.
Alison Fenney, head of policy at the Refugee Council, said, "There are
two aims to this project: to identify the pool of qualified doctors in the UK
and to enable them to get adequate training."
So far, 120 refugee doctors have been put on the database and they will also
be sent information packs on the health service.
Edwin Borman, chairman of international committee of BMA, who estimates
there are 800 to 1,200 refugee doctors in Britain, said, "There are many
barriers facing doctors in the UK. One of these hurdles is information for the
refugee doctors on how the NHS system works."
In a separate project, the refugee education and training advisory service,
part of the charity World University Service, is applying for a £70,000 grant
from the Department of Health to fund the training of mentors for refugee
doctors.
Training has taken place in the BMA’s offices in London, and the funding
will be used to roll out the training across the UK.
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