Page 40 - Augustine News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Every day i work in this hospital, i always thought that something could go wrong. augustine is one of 9,500 nigerian doctors licensed to work in the uk. recruitment from abroad has never been higher, with almost 40% of uk doctors trained overseas. but his recruitment by a british company called nes health care meant working long hours in a private hospital with potential consequences, he says, for patients' health. i would wake up at 6.30 behind the ward at seven and it was an 80 bedded hospital. so i was looking after all of the patients on the ward. outpatients and x—ray, and i would be w...

When i was sick, you know, you have like a flu or something and you just can't even because i wasn't so willing to call in to say, oh, i'm not filled because i felt i'll lose money. yes. nuffield health, which runs the hospital in leeds where augustine worked, told us they expect all their service providers to comply with applicable laws and regulations and they'd review their relationship with any service provider found to be operating unethically. they say they closely monitor the workloads of their resident medical officers and stipulate regular breaks and rest days. this is where some nes ...

The gmc say they have no role in the recruitment of doctors and that they have a legal obligation to provide routes to registration for doctors abroad. and the british council says it simply delivers the plab i exams in line with gmc requirements. remember augustine, the doctor from the start of this report? well, it was whilst he was studying for the second part of those plab exams here in the uk that he was approached by nes health care, the company behind me, and later offered visa sponsorship and a potential job. it sounds like that's a breach of the government's code of practice on no act...

And so it's in breach of it. augustine was so eager to practice here, he signed an nis contract that opted him out of something called the working time directive — legislation that protects people from long working hours. do you think that you were so tired that there was a potential that you weren't doing the best or weren't delivering the best care for the patients? yes. that's the and that was my worry, because i knew that working tired puts the patients at risk and puts myself also at risk as well for litigation and other things. so i was really, really worried. if he was too tired to wo...

Hours could be excused in any way at night, for instance, when doctors are only on call, not actually on the ward unless needed. if you're on duty, you're on duty and you're in a hospital room. you could be called at any time. that is a basic understanding of a doctor who's on duty. if they can be called at any time, they're on duty. that's why no doctor in the nhs on the nhs contracts does more than four nights consecutively because we know that it's frankly not safe. she's particularly concerned that nes doctors can't leave their contracts without three months notice. if they do, they face m...