“The Royal London is truly a beehive"
Ahlam Muthanna, a medical doctor from Yemen, who is now working as a medical support worker at The Royal London shares her experience of our differing healthcare systems around the world.
“If I could describe how I felt in the first few days as a medical support worker in one word, it would be shocked. Both scientifically and culturally, it’s such a different world.
“The Royal London has highly developed infrastructure, technology, policies and very dedicated staff. Back home in Yemen the healthcare system is very primitive, we still use paper in all work and would only read about complex investigations in medical journals, using only our imagination to gain an understanding.
“Yemen hospitals are militarized, meaning they provide traditional health care whilst often being targeted by the other fighting party. Due to this, Yemen did not get a chance for any healthcare systems to flourish.
“When the last war started in 2015, hospitals became very risky places and I stepped back from medicine and joined humanitarian work with Oxfam, this was rewarding but not the career I longed for.
“I often think about how lucky I would have been if I’d grown and developed as a doctor in UK, but I know I am still fortunate to be working as a medical support worker and privileged to see how the practice of medicine is guided by guidelines, informed by research and developed by questioning.
"The medical support worker role is an important step for me. It is a transitional period of practicing medicine in global south countries, into one of the most developed healthcare systems in the world.
“This role recognizes the worldwide disparity between health care systems and has given me the opportunity to integrate smoothly in NHS and I hope it becomes sustained.
“The Royal London is truly a beehive, all the staff are working as bees to serve the queen; the patient and all in a very human way.”
Learn more about the medical support worker programme and how you can work with people like Ahlam.