A seemingly ordinary house in a quiet Birmingham suburb has been revealed as the unlikely headquarters of a company at the centre of a £40.5 million NHS financial scandal. The scheme, now abruptly terminated, involved bringing hundreds of trainee doctors from Pakistan to work in UK hospitals.
A Suburban Address for a Multi-Million Pound Operation
From the outside, the red-brick property on a West Midlands residential street, worth around £750,000, appears entirely typical. Since 2001, it has been the home of Helen Bradin, 65, a former solicitor and local Rotary Club figure. However, since 2017, it has also served as the registered office for Scholar and Trainee Services Ltd, a company she owns and runs as sole director.
Officially an 'employment agency', the firm's accounts filed at Companies House showed modest assets of just £4,203 and claimed only two employees. This facade was shattered when a bombshell review by auditors KPMG, commissioned by University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust (UHB), laid bare its role in a costly and poorly managed initiative.
The "Learn and Return" Scheme Unravels
The scandal revolves around a programme, nicknamed 'learn and return', run with the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan (CPSP). The intention was for junior medics from Pakistan to gain skills in the NHS before returning home, providing the UK health service with cheaper labour in the interim.
Since 2017, UHB—one of England's largest trusts—paid £40.5 million to Scholar and Trainee Services. The arrangement saw the firm receive £3,960 per month for each of the roughly 700 'International Training Fellows', who would then be paid their salaries by Mrs Bradin's company.
The KPMG audit uncovered 17 serious issues, revealing a scheme riddled with failures:
- No formal contract existed between UHB and Scholar and Trainee Services.
- The trust paid tens of millions without requiring invoices.
- Both Mrs Bradin and the CPSP refused to disclose how much the doctors were actually paid, raising exploitation fears.
- It was unclear if the fellows were paying UK income tax, a situation deemed 'unlikely' to be legal.
- UHB failed to conduct basic pre-employment checks, including criminal record screenings.
- The employment agreements likely broke law, neglecting to inform workers of rights to holiday and sick pay.
Furthermore, the scheme's core purpose failed. KPMG found 68% of the 80 doctors interviewed had not returned to Pakistan, instead securing permanent UK residency. This contradicts the scheme's aim and breaches WHO guidelines, as Pakistan is on a 'red list' to protect its own health workforce.
Wider Implications and a Systemic Failure
The fallout extends beyond the direct payments. The audit found UHB spent over £122,500 on 'exchange visits' to Pakistan for its staff, including £9,000 on hotels, despite agreements stating the CPSP should fund these trips. Hospitality received was not declared under conflict of interest policies.
There were also complaints from Pakistan that recruitment was based on 'personal references and favouritism'. One pregnant fellow had her employment terminated, describing the experience as 'traumatic'.
UHB has now scrapped the scheme and cut ties with the CPSP. However, experts warn this case is 'the tip of the iceberg'. Nearly 7,000 foreign doctors participated in similar fellowships between 2009 and 2023, with other English trusts running linked programmes.
Partha Kar, a former Royal College of Physicians councillor, stated the report points to systemic problems where desperation to fill workforce gaps overrode governance. He has called for all such schemes to be paused.
UHB's chief medical officer stated there was 'no suggestion... of impropriety or fraud by any trust employee'. Mrs Bradin, meanwhile, bizarrely claimed the KPMG report "found no issues" related to her company. The fate of the £40.5 million in public money, and the original role of the company's Pakistani founder, Brigadier Saeed Akhtar, remains shrouded in mystery.
