British MPs call for urgent changes in vetting EU doctors for English skills and medical competence
James Meikle
The European commission may speed up changes to EU rules on the free movement of labour that medical regulators say are jeopardising patient safety.
Officials monitoring the European internal market are preparing a report on how employment laws are working, including present limits on testing workers' knowledge of English. They say a formal review may be concluded before the planned 2012 date.
Recognition of professional qualifications is included in the re-examination of a 2005 directive. It comes as senior MPs in Britain publish a report saying the next government must demand changes to the present rules "as a matter of extreme urgency" because lives are being put at risk.
The MPs support claims by the General Medical Council that patients are at risk because the GMC cannot test EU doctors on their knowledge of English or medical competence.
A spokesperson for Michel Barnier, the relevant EU commissioner in Brussels, said: "The evaluation will specifically look at the language issue. The report has to be concluded by 2012 at the latest but we are considering whether to bring that date forward. On the basis of the report the commission will consider whether any further action is necessary or not, as it always does".
Barnier has expressed concerns over the directive in the past, extending well beyond those raised by the case of Daniel Ubani, the German doctor who killed a patient on his first shift in Britain.
The commission has now addressed complaints from the GMC about poor exchange of information between regulators in different EU member states, saying it encourages the authorities to engage in closer contact. This should help solve some of the issues raised, such as delays when the UK authorities tried to get information from German authorities over the Ubani case. "It should also be noted that in the course of the evaluation of the directive, the need for a possible rapid alert system will be looked at," said the Brussels spokesperson.
The commission's announcement is an embarrassment for the Department of Health, which made no reference to the key recommendation of the health select committee in its official response tothe MPs' report. It also did not address a demand that ministers change a law that the GMC says "gold-plates" EU rules and prevents proper vetting of applicants to the UK register.
The government simply repeated that there was a legal obligation on primary care trusts not to let a doctor work for them where they were not satisfied about the doctor's knowledge of English.
Pending the results of the review, the commission has said that while the GMC as regulator cannot impose blanket linguistic tests before EU doctors' qualification are recognised, UK authorities can test any doctor wanting a job if they believe the applicant does not have enough English. The applicant should not have to provide specific language qualifications but be able to provide evidence such as attendance at language training or a stay in a country where English is used.
The Guardian
