International Focus For NI Healthcare Consultancy

Training in the medical world is in focus this week with news that a Co Londonderry consultancy is to develop its healthcare consultancy and training business in global markets.

Calcara International Healthcare Ltd (Calcara) in Coleraine is being assisted by Invest Northern Ireland to establish a Healthcare Academy to offer specialist international training consultancy, exclusively for the nursing, nursing assistant, medical and allied healthcare sectors internationally.

Support for the company's international marketing activities was announced by Des Gartland, Manager of Invest NI's North West Regional Office in Londonderry, through its Growth Accelerator Programme (GAP).

Said Mr Gartland: "Calcara has identified a substantial market opportunity for a professional recruitment service specialising in a broad range of healthcare personnel.

"In addition to recruitment, it is adding value to this important service through the provision of unique and specialist training programmes by means of an innovative Healthcare Academy," he said, noting that the company was established in November 2007 by Dr Pauline Hunter, an experienced healthcare professional.

"This is an entrepreneurial and innovative business that is soundly based on extensive market research by Dr Hunter and her vast experience in the industry.

"Our GAP assistance has been geared to enable the company to move ahead quickly with its plans to develop a strong position in its target markets.

"GAP enables the company to access funding quickly for specific projects such as international marketing. It will help the company to enter the market quickly," Mr Gartland added.

Also commenting, founder, Dr Hunter said: "Our objectives are to empower and enable qualified nurses, doctors, occupational therapists and physiotherapists to work abroad and achieve maximum professional development; and to provide clients with the highest standards of healthcare recruitment and training services.

"We conduct individual recruitment campaigns on behalf of clients using a database which includes companies based in the UAE, UK, USA, China, Thailand, New Zealand, Europe, India, Philippines and Australia.

"Individual applicants are sourced and pre-selected through in-depth evaluation screening - interview, screening, testing and evaluation - to ensure that all candidates have the required knowledge, skills and qualifications requested by the client.

"My training programmes are based on experience I've gained of nurse education and organisational wide training for over two decades in hospitals and institutes of education.

"This enables me to offer tailored training healthcare programmes developed to meet client need," she said, adding that the programmes have been designed to be the perfect tool in the clinical setting.

"They are a valuable and timesaving means of providing periodic training and competency evaluation for nursing staff in hospitals," added Dr Hunter.

(BMcC/KMcA)