In the last two years, Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC) has witnessed a growth in its range of healthcare services to the county which will continue to expand over the coming three years.
Originally set up to provide Cumbria with out of hours primary healthcare services, CHoC’s services have extended to offering extended access appointments and day time services, such as the running of the Glenridding Health Centre. The social enterprise now provides healthcare to the Cumbrian community during 68% of the total week and runs 14 clinical sites around the county, covering a population of approximately 528,000. This has resulted in CHoC’s staff numbers growing by a third in the past 2 years.
With its plan for continued growth in services in the county, CHoC has launched an innovative recruitment effort aimed at attracting clinicians around the UK and overseas to the county. CHoC hopes that by launching the engaging campaign, it will encourage an influx of top medical talent to the area.
The campaign includes a short film showcasing CHoC’s current team with the county’s stunning scenery and lifestyle opportunities. The launch of the film marks the start of the CHoC’s HR team attending a series of clinical recruitment fairs across the UK and in UK universities. The recruitment effort will be ongoing and will be aimed at the UK’s GPs, nurse practitioners and pharmacists, encouraging them to consider Cumbria as a place to work whilst highlighting the unique flexibility and work-life balance CHoC can provide to clinicians.
Susan Blakemore, Chief Executive of CHoC said; “2019 has been a fantastic year so far for CHoC and has seen us reaching our 10 year milestone, which shows just how vital our services are to the county.
“The breadth of our service has grown significantly over the last few years and will continue to do so to ensure that we are effectively supporting the Cumbrian health economy. Over the next three years we would like to ensure that we are working with our partners in preventative healthcare, tackling health inequalities in the county, helping in the coordination of day time services within primary care, supporting early discharge programmes and introducing mental health expertise. I want to ensure that as do this, we do so in line with the CHoC values of being clinically focused, responsive, organised and always working to the highest standards.
“A big part of that will be ensuring we continue to recruit the right clinicians with the right skills. I’m extremely excited to be launching this recruitment campaign and hope that it will attract top clinical talent to the organisation which will not only ensure we have more clinicians to serve the county but will also result in a continued improvement in the quality of Cumbrian healthcare. Our new campaign will encourage clinicians to consider Cumbria as a place of work and see that CHoC will be able to offer a challenging, rewarding and flexible clinical career – all whilst having a work-life balance in a county that is brimming with leisure activities for all ages, stunning countryside and brilliant communities.”
