My journey to working in the NHS

Dr Prutha Chawda
Incoming Diagnostic Neuroradiology Fellow
Derriford Hospital, University Hospitals Plymouth

My route to an appointed post in the UK certainly wasn’t as straightforward as I had imagined back in early 2020. It was during this time that I first registered for the FRCR exam while my husband set out to pursue his own journey in the NHS as a specialty registrar. Yet just a couple of weeks later the COVID-19 pandemic began and the country would go into lockdown, putting FRCR exams for international medical graduates (IMGs) and travel firmly on hold. It wasn’t until a year later that I was able to travel to the UK to reunite with my husband.

Immense support

I finished three years of radiology training in India in 2017 and had experience as a senior resident and consultant for over three years before moving to the UK. While in the UK, I reached out to the training programme director (TPD) of the Peninsula Radiology Academy, Dr Priya Suresh. She was kind enough to understand my situation and offered me a clinical observership at the Academy while I waited for the FRCR exams to begin registering IMGs. I completed the Part 1 FRCR exam in June 2021 and Part 2A and 2B in November 2021 and March 2022 respectively. My training, prior experience in India and critically the immense support of the trainers and trainees in the radiology department at University Hospitals Plymouth (UHP) and Peninsula Radiology Academy enabled me to pass the exams in a short duration.

The process of vetting scans, understanding the different management pathways by attending multidisciplinary team meetings and the mock viva sessions not only complemented my exam preparations but also made my transition to working in the NHS much smoother.

Valued for my skills

Following my General Medical Council registration in August 2022, I started working as a locum specialty doctor contributing to the busy acute patient care at University Hospitals Plymouth. Through this journey, I have been valued for my skills and welcomed by a very supportive department. I am currently on maternity leave and excitedly looking forward to returning to work as a Diagnostic Neuroradiology Fellow in Derriford Hospital providing secondary and tertiary care to 1.7 million people, knowing there is a lot of learning that still awaits me.