Damning audit reveals NHS trust paid £40.5m in 'unusual' arrangement for overseas doctors

Credit: Tony Hisgett/Creative Commons Licence

By Daniel Pye

A programme to train doctors from overseas has been discontinued after an independent audit revealed major concerns, including an “unusual arrangement” where £40.5 million was paid to a small UK company without any formal contract.

Since 2017, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) has paid the hefty sum to a company based out of a house in Sutton Coldfield as part of a third-party arrangement to manage payments for international training fellows (ITFs), primarily from Pakistan.

The scheme aims to provide international doctors with hands-on clinical training across a range of specialties, whilst supporting local workforce needs in the NHS.

The report, by accountancy firm KPMG, found that the trust did not receive a monthly schedule or invoice from the company or overseas institutes setting out expected amounts or the volume of fellows employed.

UHB has acknowledged that it did not know how much money each international trainee actually received.