Hywel Dda University Health Board will be at ‘the’ career event of the year for doctors this weekend to attract interest in local medical careers across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys.

Hospital and community based doctors will join a representative from the health board’s medical recruitment team to promote medical career opportunities in Mid and West Wales at the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Careers Fair in London.

The team will focus on areas with the most need, including emergency care, medical, surgical, anaesthetics, mental health, and general practitioners (GPs). The health board will also be promoting the opportunities offered by collaborative working in the region, including the Mid Wales Collaborative, ARCH (A Regional Collaborative for Health with AMBU Health Board and Swansea University) and the Emergency Medical Retrieval and Transfer Service Cymru (EMRTS Cymru).

Medical staffing advisor Tracey Morgan said: “This is ‘the’ career event of the year for doctors in the UK and our presence provides us with a unique opportunity to meet a diverse range of quality medical professionals face-to-face.

“We have several appointments out for advert at the moment and we will be encouraging applications for these specifically, as well as raising awareness more generally about the benefits of working for Hywel Dda University Health Board and its collaborations.

“We will also be able to tell prospective candidates about the unique recruitment campaign we have recently undertaken to get junior-doctor level candidates into Medicine at Withybush Hospital. We have been offering a two-year contract which sees doctors supported by our excellent in-house teaching to be fully integrated into the NHS systems and processes and get them up to membership (MRCP) level and competencies. We hope this will stimulate some interest in our health board and the opportunities we can offer.”

The Hywel Dda UHB stand - no 9 - will run a free Apple mini i-Pad competition to attract attendees to the stand.

The BMJ Careers Fair - held today (Friday) and tomorrow (Saturday) at the Business Design Centre, London - attracts doctors from all sectors, including primary and secondary care, industry and commercial, research and academic. The 2014 Fair attracted over 1,900 visitors from all grades and specialties, from Foundation doctors, specialty trainees, GPs, Trust doctors right through to consultants.

Some of the medical vacancies currently being advertised by Hywel Dda UHB include: Emergency medicine - middle grade and consultants; middle grades for medicine; consultants in respiratory medicine; consultant radiologists; consultants in histopathology; junior doctors for surgery and orthopaedics; all grades of doctors for anaesthetics.