Global Fellows

Radiologists practising independently outside the UK can apply to work in the NHS for a period of up to three years to develop specialist interest skills whilst delivering service work. The role is ideally suited to those who have worked in radiology for at least five years and hold Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists (FRCR).

The role includes a mixture of general radiology and subspecialty interest work during core hours and on-call. 60% of your time would be spent on general radiology duties. The remainder 40% will be devoted to developing your subspecialty radiology interest expertise and skills which can be discussed with your host organisation. It could include mentoring, multi-disciplinary team meeting attendance and participation, involvement in clinical audit and quality improvement projects. In addition to this, you will have access to opportunities to get involved in research, the development of new services, clinical governance, training and/or management.

The workforce crisis in radiology will not be resolved by a big enough increase in domestic training numbers anytime soon. Creating global radiologist posts within your team can contribute to meeting the demands on your service, whilst offering internationally qualified radiologists the opportunities to develop special interest skills within the NHS.

Global radiologists are specialty doctors who, following appropriate local induction, are fully qualified to work independently, and already do so in the country they apply from.

The practicalities of appointing internationally qualified doctors, including visas, GMC registration and job planning are covered here.

Services which have already welcomed global radiologists into their teams have converted vacant consultant posts into SAS grade doctor posts to enable this. The benefits reported have been significant, and cover both the practical elements of managing workload, but also improved team working and new ideas from radiologists who have been working in different environments to the NHS.

We have received many queries about the global radiologist initiative, covering off the practicalities of making a case, the implications of training and on trainees, and the ethical implications of international recruitment. These are covered here. If you have a question that is not covered here, please email professionalservices@rcr.ac.uk.