Kim Tolley was a Regional Liaison Adviser for the General Medical Council. Kim has worked in a combination of healthcare, education and regulation roles, all of which she chose because she felt they made a difference to patient care.
Originally, she qualified as a nurse and worked in Intensive care. She joined the GMC from the Nursing and Midwifery Council and has extensive experience teaching nursing in higher education. She previously worked as a GMC Regional Liaison Adviser in South London and feels passionately about engaging and supporting doctors in their challenging roles within healthcare.
‘I am delighted to have been seconded to work as a Training Development Manager as part of the International General Practice (GP) Recruitment programme - The national campaign to assist overseas doctors to relocate and work for the NHS.
In today’s NHS workforce 36% of doctors trained overseas and of these 11% are from the EEA. I know that our existing dedicated staff will be welcoming new EU doctors to join our multi-cultural, committed workforce.
The GMC provides a great deal of support to overseas doctors to register and adhere to our standards of what makes a good doctor by setting out the professional values, knowledge, skills and behaviours required of all doctors working in the UK.
In this role, I will help to provide educational support for anyone intending to join the IGPR programme. I plan to run a series of monthly Skype broadcasts for EU GPs. They will be able to access this at whatever point they are through their recruitment process into the UK. The aim is to engage with IGPR doctors in an interactive manner to begin their journey and induction into general practice in UK Healthcare. A patient scenario will be used to allow doctors to apply the information to a real-life situation and illustrate the role of a GP, the structure of the NHS and the application of GMC guidance to practise in the UK.
I know that many doctors who relocate from overseas face challenges adapting to working in the UK. The GMC offers support in the transition into living and working here by running our free Welcome to UK Practice workshops. I will use some of the ethical and legal scenarios covered in the workshops in the IGPR programme. I am hoping that it will give doctors the opportunity to learn about the core values of the NHS. We will cover some of the ethical challenges you may face in your day-to-day work and the information will be a valuable tool for doctors settling into new professional surroundings in UK healthcare.
We have now developed a ‘MY GMP’ app which can be downloaded for free to your tablet / mobile device. This provides a one-stop shop for doctors to use to look up answers to questions and to access GMC standards and guidance, and it allows you to fit this into your busy schedules. It makes it easy to look at it even when all you have is a few minutes free.
I’m very proud to have worked in the NHS for most of my life, an organisation that looks after everyone and which anyone can access for free. I now feel privileged to be helping others to join such an important organisation that is integral to life in the UK.’