Saad Maida was completing his masters in maternal and reproductive sciences at the University of Glasgow when he realised returning to his home country was no longer an option: “I could not go back to Syria,” he says. “I’m a Christian, and by that time the three closest cities to my hometown were Islamic State strongholds.”
Maida applied for asylum in the UK in 2013. “I had a conscientious objection – I didn’t want to be involved in any side of the armed conflict. And just the remote possibility of being forced to work in a military hospital on [either] side meant a direct risk to my life.” In 2014 he was given refugee status. But although he practised as an obstetrician in Hasakah in north-east Syria, he faced a long road to be able to practise as a doctor in the UK.
He had to document his qualifications and get them translated and approved by the General Medical Council (GMC), as well as sitting the GMC’s exams to assess his English and medical competence.
Even then, despite the shortage of doctors, Maida struggled to find work due to his lack of clinical experience in the UK. “Even with the exams under my belt, although I had a double-digit number of interviews, because I had no experience I landed none of the jobs,” he says.
That’s where the Refugee Council stepped in. Maida joined its Building Bridges programme, which supports refugee health workers in London to requalify to UK standards. It helped Maida with CV writing and job interview skills as well as finding him a place on the Clinical Apprenticeship Placement scheme, which organises clinical attachments for refugee doctors with no previous UK work experience.
The British Refugee Councils are one of three charity partners this year for the Guardian and Observer appeal in support of refugees and asylum seekers, alongside Refugees at Home, and Naccom. The 2023 appeal, which runs until 14 January, has already raised £750,000.
Maida’s first job was as maternity cover in Bath, before becoming a junior doctor in general surgery at George Eliot hospital trust in Nuneaton. He started the obstetrics and gynaecology training programme in 2016 and is now a senior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology, and a senior clinical teaching fellow at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS trust.
It’s a similar story for Shqipe Maloku, from Kosovo, who is about to finish her GP training in Stevenage. Without the Building Bridges programme, she would never have been able to practise medicine, she says: “If it weren’t for Building Bridges, I would be working in a restaurant or something, because I’m not a good fighter. They opened the door to me when I felt lost. Sometimes you need a bit of a cushion.”
Since it started in 2009, the Building Bridges scheme has helped more than 180 doctors like Maida to get their licence to practice with the GMC and find jobs in the NHS. Funded by Health Education England, it has also found “transitional” healthcare jobs for nearly 400 other health professionals.
A similar programme in Scotland has helped more than 40 refugee doctors find jobs since 2017. Summer, from Iraq, who arrived in Glasgow with her husband and two children in 2019, says she couldn’t have become a doctor in the UK without help from her case worker. “It was not easy for us. Our lives changed overnight, but we got huge support from the Scottish Refugee Council.”
Summer was referred to Building Bridges, which helped her obtain a GMC registration and organised a placement at Ayr hospital. She has just started GP training in Glasgow. “I love Scotland,” says Summer. “Everyone has been so welcoming, from the day we arrived at the airport. We’re really settled, and we even like the weather!”
The Refugee Councils also helps doctors who have yet to be granted leave to remain and who therefore aren’t eligible for the scheme, because asylum seekers are prohibited from working.
Kateryna, a paediatrician from Ukraine arrived in the UK in 2022. She says her case worker was crucial in helping her find a job as a clinical support worker at Sheffield Children’s hospital. “They helped me with everything – all the applications, found me English courses, helped get my qualifications recognised. I am thrilled to be back in a hospital,” she says.
With a vacancy rate of 7.2% for doctors in England alone, participating trusts say the scheme has huge potential benefits for the health service. “It’s a no-brainer,” says Fahira Mulamehic, employment programmes manager at the Refugee Council. “While it costs the NHS about £290,000 to train a UK doctor from scratch, it only costs a fraction of this – around £25,000 – to retrain a refugee doctor through this programme.”
Back in Leamington Spa, Maida says he hopes to qualify as a consultant in the next few years. Meanwhile, he tries to help other refugees whenever he can. “I try to always be aware of how privileged I am,” he says. “Now I am a British citizen, I feel I have a duty to give back to society.”
