Harnessing the force of post-F2 doctors - a medical clinical fellow post that transformed locally employed doctor recruitment

Rebecca Haggie; Rachel Scott; Rhiannon Hughes; Philip Braude; Heather Woodcraft

doi:10.7861/fhj.2022-0043

Harnessing the force of post-F2 doctors - a medical clinical fellow post that transformed locally employed doctor recruitment

Future Healthc J. 2023 Jul;10(2):154-156. doi: 10.7861/fhj.2022-0043.

Authors

Rebecca Haggie¹, Rachel Scott¹, Rhiannon Hughes¹, Philip Braude², Heather Woodcraft¹

Affiliations

¹ North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol, UK.
² CLARITY (Collaborate Ageing Research) group, North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol, UK.

Abstract

In 2018, North Bristol Trust (NBT) faced difficulties recruiting clinical fellows. In response, a new programme was introduced that includes opportunities for non-clinical time, supervision, and a study budget, as well as flexibility of contract duration and on-call commitment. This has significantly improved the application ratios, with a 94% fill rate in August 2021 and competition ratios of 2.5:1. Not only has it been successful for staffing medical rotas, but clinical fellows also report positive experiences, have gained opportunities that would not be available in a training role and feel the role will benefit their future job applications. This report outlines the new programme and analyses it from the clinical fellow and Trust perspective. We hope that by sharing this successful new programme, other organisations can take inspiration to harness the potential of the high proportion of doctors taking a break from training post-foundation programme.

Keywords: LED; clinical fellow; locally employed doctor; recruitment; rota gaps.