A MEDICAL recruitment company from Hereford is part of a new project to encourage more young people into the medical professional.

Kingdom Medical was set up at the beginning of the year by Dan Wright, who has 13 years of experience working in medical recruitment.

He recruited friend, Guy Churcher, as the managing consultant and the business already needs to expand from four members of staff to eight.

The company provides healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses, in the UK but also all over the world from Canada to Nepal.

But as well as medical recruitment, Mr Wright is also working on a number of different projects, including one which aims to provide pre-medical counselling.

He said: "We will speak to young people at sixth form level who want to be a doctor. We will then have a group of mentors who mentor these young people in the run-up to applying for medical school.

"They can provide help in interview skills, leadership, some clinical stuff, and maybe even offer work experience.

"The idea is that at the end of it they have a better chance of being accepted at medical school.

"It is no quick fix to the medical staff shortage. But we believe it is something that will enable the right type of people with the right skills to go through into that training that perhaps lack the life experience to be able to get to that stage."

Kingdom Medical is also working with a big company, which cannot be named at this stage, to provide soft skills training.

Mr Wright said it is well-known that there is a lack of medical staff to fill positions in the UK, so often hospital trusts look abroad for staff to fill the vacancies.

He said: "The problem is that, depending on where they come from, there are big differences in culture. Soft skills looks at things like bedside manner. I guess you could call it bringing the personal touch back to the medical world."

Mr Wright said he has been surprised at the amount of bigger companies who want to work with a smaller company.

He said: "Kingdom Medical was originally opened up as a medical recruitment agency, which is not what you see here in Hereford typically."