Leeds Teaching Hospitals Jobs, Pay & Visa Sponsorship

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust provides healthcare and specialist services for Leeds, the Yorkshire and the Humber region and beyond.

It has a budget of more than £2.1 billion and a 20,000-strong staff, and delivers care from seven hospitals on five sites.

The trust reports that last year it treated close to 1.8 million patients, including 109,000 inpatient admissions, 1.3 million outpatient attendances and 359,000 emergency department attendances.

Its hospitals are Leeds General Infirmary, St James's University Hospital, Leeds Children's Hospital, Leeds Dental Institute, Chapel Allerton Hospital, Seacroft Hospital and Wharfedale Hospital. The trust trains medical, nursing and dental students and is a centre for research.

For internationally trained professionals, Leeds is a licensed sponsor that recruits through advertised posts. Its international offer is strongest for nurses: it is home to the Leeds Competence Test Centre, which delivers the NMC OSCE, and a separate trust-run OSCE training course set up in 2024. Doctors can apply for medical observerships, which are observation placements rather than paid jobs.

Founded

1767 (Leeds General Infirmary, the trust's oldest site)

Run by

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Leadership

• Brendan Brown, Chief Executive
• Dr Elizabeth Garthwaite, Interim Chief Medical Officer
• Beverley Geary, Chief Nurse

Switchboard

0113 2433 144

• Major trauma

  Leeds Major Trauma Centre at Leeds General Infirmary, which the trust describes as the second-busiest trauma centre in the country.

• Cancer

  Leeds Cancer Centre diagnoses and treats cancer for Leeds and the Yorkshire region.

• Children's services

  Leeds Children's Hospital is one of the UK's largest specialist children's hospitals, according to the trust.

• Dentistry

  Leeds Dental Institute focuses on dental care, research and education.

• Musculoskeletal care and research

  Chapel Allerton Hospital is a nationally acclaimed centre for musculoskeletal research.

• Regional services at Seacroft

  Including the Rob Burrow Centre for Motor Neurone Disease, Leeds Fertility and prosthetics.

• The trust runs the Leeds Competence Test Centre, which offers the OSCE part of the Nursing and Midwifery Council's test of competence for nurses, midwives and nursing associates.
• Its Leeds NMC OSCE Training Course was established in 2024 'to help international nurses achieve NMC OSCE success with confidence'. It covers the adult nursing and nursing associate OSCE only, not midwifery, mental health, children's or learning disability, and is taught by trained NMC OSCE examiners. You book a place through a form on the trust's website.
• For doctors, the trust offers medical observerships (formerly clinical attachments). We did not find a dedicated international recruitment programme page for nurses or doctors on the trust's careers site, so international applicants usually apply directly to advertised posts.
• Home Office sponsor register: we checked the register of licensed sponsors (workers) on GOV.UK on 21 October 2026, in the version dated 20 October 2026. Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is listed in Leeds with an A rating for the Skilled Worker route. Being listed means the organisation can assign certificates of sponsorship; it does not mean every vacancy is open to sponsorship, so check the advert and ask the recruiting team.

• Nurses and midwives: registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). If you trained outside the UK you pass the NMC test of competence (a computer-based test and the OSCE) and show English at NMC level, for example IELTS Academic 7 in listening, reading and speaking and 6.5 in writing, or OET grade B with C+ in writing.

• Doctors: registration with a licence to practise from the General Medical Council (GMC). Most international graduates qualify through PLAB 1 and PLAB 2 or an acceptable postgraduate qualification, and the GMC asks for IELTS Academic 7.5 overall with at least 7.0 in each area, or OET Medicine grade B in every skill.

• Allied health professionals such as physiotherapists and radiographers: registration with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) through its international route, with an HCPC-accepted English test unless you qualified in a country on its list.

• Visa: if you do not already have the right to work in the UK, you need a job offer and a certificate of sponsorship from an approved employer, then usually the Health and Care Worker visa. GOV.UK sets the eligibility, salary and fee rules, not the employer.

• Pre-employment checks: successful candidates complete identification, professional registration, DBS, occupational health, references and right to work checks through the trust's OnBoarding system, including an in-person appointment.

1. 1

   Work on registration first

   Pass your English test and, for nurses, the NMC computer-based test. If you are already in the UK for the OSCE, you can book the Leeds OSCE training course or sit the exam at the Leeds Competence Test Centre.
2. 2

   Search vacancies

   The careers page at leedsth.nhs.uk/careers links to the trust's vacancies site and to its listings on NHS Jobs.
3. 3

   Check sponsorship

   If you need a visa, check the advert and ask the recruiting manager whether the post can be sponsored.
4. 4

   Apply and interview

   Complete the application against the job description and person specification and attend interview if shortlisted.
5. 5

   Complete OnBoarding checks

   After a conditional offer, the resourcing team uses its OnBoarding site to collect documents and book your in-person check appointment.
6. 6

   Visa and start date

   With a certificate of sponsorship, apply for the Health and Care Worker visa on GOV.UK. Do not resign from your current job until your start date is confirmed, as the trust advises.

• Band 5 (newly registered nurse or midwife)

  £32,073 to £39,043

  Agenda for Change 2026/27. Intermediate point £34,592 after 2 years, top after a further 2 years.

• Band 6

  £39,959 to £48,117

  Agenda for Change 2026/27. Intermediate point £42,170 after 2 years.

• Band 7

  £49,387 to £56,515

  Agenda for Change 2026/27. Intermediate point £51,932 after 2 years.

• Resident doctor, FY1 and FY2

  £41,226 and £47,610

  2016 contract nodal points from 1 April 2026, as restructured to ten points in the July 2026 circular.

• Resident doctor, ST1 to ST8

  £55,355 to £77,348

  ST1 and ST2 £55,355; ST3 £67,325; ST4 and ST5 £67,998; ST6 £76,582; ST7 and ST8 £77,348.

• Specialty doctor (2021 contract)

  £63,696 to £102,689

  2026/27, by years of experience.

• Consultant (2003 contract)

  £113,565 to £150,569

  2026/27, by years completed as a consultant.