Patchwork and Medics Academy equip clinicians for COVID-19 frontline
As featured in Health Tech News.
Two of the UK’s leading healthtech startups, Patchwork Health and Medics.Academy, have announced a partnership designed to support returning and recently qualified clinicians who are preparing to serve on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19.
In response to one of the largest recruitment drives in the 21st century, tens of thousands of recently retired NHS workers and thousands of newly-qualified medical students have already put themselves forward to fill the NHS’s hospital staffing gaps, many of them securing shifts via Patchwork Health’s free digital recruitment platform.
In order to equip these returning and newly-qualified clinicians with the confidence and up-to-date skills they will need on the wards, Patchwork Health is offering its users the opportunity to take part in one of two specially-designed courses for free via the Medics.Academy platform: the first is aimed at newly-qualified junior clinicians, and the second is for recent retirees returning to service.
These educational programmes will serve the dual purposes of rapidly preparing staff to re-enter the NHS and equipping new starters with essential skills. In April alone over 10,000 hours of clinical training will be delivered to frontline staff, including modules on managing acutely unwell patients and coping with stresses and trauma of working on the frontline.
The programme of study for newly-qualified clinicians preparing for their first hospital jobs will be built around the already widely popular Medics.Academy F|Docs programme – an extensive library of interactive courses tailored to Foundation Doctors – currently enrolled in by over 60% of UK medical graduates. The F|Docs programme includes all aspects of transition to practice, and just like all of the Medics.Academy courses, it has been created and peer-reviewed by healthcare professionals, and enables busy clinicians to learn anywhere, at any time, and to monitor their progress through a built-in tracking feature.
The collaboration forms part of a broader collaborative initiative which is being pioneered by the Patchwork Health team. They have also enlisted the support of fellow start-up Wagestream in order to ease the burden on NHS systems at this critical moment.
Wagestream is enabling clinicians using the Patchwork Health flexible working app to access their wages as soon as they need them.
Dr Anas Nadar, CEO of Patchwork Health, says:
“As healthcare workers ourselves, the Patchwork Health team are acutely aware of the immense strain this pandemic is placing on NHS staffing systems. We are also in awe of the selflessness of returning and recently qualified doctors who are stepping up to do their bit.”
“We believe that no doctor should feel uncomfortable or unable to return to service owing to an inability to access the correct training on demand, which is why we are working with Medics.Academy to ensure that our service users are offered the very best CPD.”
“We are proud to be able to play our part in the recruitment, deployment and training of doctors at this crucial moment, and we urge our fellow players in the healthtech space to follow our lead”.
Dr Johann Malawana CEO of Medics.Academy, says:
“At Medics.Academy, our mission is to bring world-class healthcare training resources to a global audience. As soon as the threat from COVID-19 emerged on the horizon, we directed our efforts into developing specialised learning programmes to equip medical professionals for frontline service.”
“We are delighted that our partnership with Patchwork.Health will enable those with the most imperative need to access our educational material – this is an example of inter-organisational collaboration at its most effective”.