East meets West in medical exchange

[File photo: thinkstockphotos]

The private healthcare company, Sinolink, has announced the launch of a new Observership Programme for 2017 that will introduce over 30 key medical observers from China to the Royal Free Hospital in London.

Observers will be able to learn, develop and share medical knowledge with which to assist Chinese healthcare reform, whilst the hosting department would receive a number of benefits from research funding, training development to International collaboration.

The clinical elective programme is designed to enhance learning within the observers' medical specialism whilst gaining experience of the UK's NHS systems and procedures.

Sinolink have run Observership programmes with medical practitioners from China for nearly 10 years, in fact China sends the largest number of Observers to the UK over any other country.

The clinical and non-clinical programmes, range from hospital CEO management training to care assistant training, with the most popular being clinical attachment programmes for doctors and nurses. The programmes include clinical governance, risk management, leadership and complex patient care, as well as medical codes of conduct.

The benefits to observers include being exposed to a wide range of medical practices such as simulation labs, ward rounds, MDT (multi-disciplinary team) meetings, assimilation and theatre training.

Primary care classroom-based learning gives each observer the chance to experience a typical NHS patient pathway.

This isn't the first time China has sent medical observers to the UK, as we have reported previously.