Celebrating REACHE North West on Overseas NHS Workers Day

On Overseas NHS Workers Day on the 3 March, Health Education England are celebrating the REACHE North West programme and its members. REACHE stands for Refugee and Asylum Seekers Centre for Healthcare Professionals’ Education. The programme supports refugee and asylum seeker doctors, nurses and allied health professionals on a comprehensive pathway into NHS employment.  

REACHE is the only UK programme to currently offer refugee and asylum seekers a complete in-house pathway to registration with the General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council. REACHE members attending the programme are all qualified professionals, but they need to retrain to work in the UK. The English requirement for UK registration can be one of the biggest hurdles for people to overcome during this process.  

We are celebrating the fortitude, strength and determination of Dr Ahmad Alomar, Dr Lida Amer and Dr Salih Suliman who worked to tirelessly to retrain and join the NHS workforce.  

Dr Ahmad Alomar 

Refugee from Syria and is now in his second year of GP training.  

“REACHE is a great advantage for all refugee doctors making it much faster, easier and safer to work in the NHS. The unique thing in REACHE is that it is not just for teaching purposes, but for everything. It's helping and supporting refugee doctors in terms of housing, benefits, volunteering and finding a job either at the end of the REACHE journey or while attending the courses.  For me, REACHE helped me to get a part-time job in a GP practice as a phlebotomist, which was actually at that time something incredible.” 

Dr Lida Amer

Refugee from Yemen and is now an Endocrinology Trainee with the North West Deanery.  

“There are many people who graduate from REACHE who are now doctors in the NHS. I have colleagues in every part of the country from York to London to Blackburn. As refugees, we need to work and we want to work but it's not easy for us to get registration. You have exams, you have children, you have just moved, you need a house, you need furniture – there are a lot of things going on. We are fully occupied by things including immigration issues, awaiting a reply from the Home Office, waiting for this, waiting for that. With the support of REACHE, you can get registration earlier and contribute to the community.”  

Dr Salih Suliman  

Join as an Asylum Seeker from Eritrea and is now a refugee working as a Clinical Fellow at the Northern Care Alliance.  

“Being an asylum seeker, then a refugee, then a citizen is like attending your own funeral a couple of times a year. It’s hard, it’s long and, most importantly something that no one should go through it alone. Hope is like a tiny window where miracles are made. For me and my friends, REACHE was that window. With REACHE came a glimpse of hope and an unimaginable amount of support and guidance. English classes, clinical classes, tutors, volunteers and wonderful administrative staff." 

Since 2003, REACHE North West has supported over 500 refugees and asylum seekers to gain work as GPs, associate specialists, consultants, speciality trainees, nurses, lab technicians, radiographers or dentists in the NHS. By training Refugee and Asylum seekers, the REACHE programme has saved the public purse £6.5 million. 

Contact REACHE North West for more information