Women Refugee Doctors
Equality of opportunity was, and remains, a founding principle of the Medical
Women’s Federation. As an organisation we are therefore committed to
helping women doctors who are disadvantaged by circumstances beyond their
control, who wish to return to clinical practice in the UK.
MWF Campaigns
– Women Refugee Doctors
MWF is familiar with the plight of women refugee doctors who want to return
to clinical practice after an extended period out of practice because of full
time domestic commitment. This was the situation of many women doctors born
and trained in this country 20-30 years ago, who stopped work for 5 or more
years to bring up their children and then found great difficulty in returning
to clinical work in the NHS and re-enter training. A major achievement of
MWF has been to support women doctors in this situation and campaign for services
to enable them to return to work and facilitate their career progression.
The current situation for women refugee doctors wanting to return to clinical
practice is similar but far more daunting. For many, being based at home in
the domestic environment has limited the opportunity for them to acquire familiarity
and fluency in spoken English and little time for reading. Before being allowed
to take the GMC PLAB examination [Professional & Linguistics Assessments
Board] to quality for registration, non-EU overseas qualified doctors have
to achieve a high score in Academic IELTS [the International English Language
Testing System]. This is a major barrier, especially with only a limited number
of IELTS courses available at higher professional level. How can the MWF help?
• MWF membership
MWF welcomes women refugee doctors to become members of the organisation.
When unemployed the cost of membership is substantially reduced, and there
may be financial support towards travel expenses for attending local MWF meetings.
Members receive email circulation of the MWF monthly Newsletter giving information
of recent and future MWF activities, also a variety of medically-related events.
• Networking
Participation in MWF activities enables refugee doctors to be drawn into local
clinical and social networks. This applies throughout the UK because of the
national grouping of the MWF members into local associations. Meeting established
women doctors provides an opportunity for providing personal support to individuals
seeking guidance in returning to medical practice.
• Representation
MWF is represented on the BMA Refugee Doctor Liaison Group, which focuses
on refugee healthcare professional needs (www.bma.org.uk/international),
and the current Chair of the BMA Equality and Diversity Committee is an MWF
past-President (www.bma.org.uk
), This enables the specific problems and requirements of women refugee doctors
to be brought to the attention of policy makers.
•Collaboration with the London Refugee Women’s
Association [RWA]: www.refugeewomen.org.uk
The RWA provides basic English language courses. The MWF is helping with this
by a member leading a small monthly reading group, to improve reading and
writing English language skills.
Useful publications
and links
- “A guide for refugee doctors” 2009
6th edition, JCORE (available through BMS International Dept)
- BMA International Dept: to receive the Refugee
Doctor Newsletter & access to BMA library
