The GMC is calling for all doctors coming to work in Britain from Europe to undergo tests to prove they are fit to practise in this country.
The issue is being raised with European Commission following the case of a German doctor who killed a patient after giving him an overdose of a painkiller on his first UK weekend shift as a locum GP.
Last week Hospital Dr reported the concerns of consultant anaesthetist Dr John Hutchinson who is campaigning for a new agency to be established to monitor foreign locums and provide them with professional support when they are in the UK.
GMC chief executive, Finlay Scott, told The Guardian that the current system did not guarantee the level of patient safety that the UK required. He is calling for European doctors to undergo the same stringent language and clinical knowledge tests that are required of doctors from outside the EU before they can work in the UK.
“We have to persuade the EU to change its long standing policy so we can test knowledge and skills at the point of first registration,” he said.
Dr Hutchinson, head of the department of anaesthetics at Hereford County Hospital, has written to the Royal College of Anaesthetists outlining his experience of employing two foreign locums whom he had to swiftly sack because of their clinical incompetence.
One of the doctors was a young paediatric neuro-anaesthetist from Eastern Europe who had poor standards in both spoken English and clinical decision-making.
He said he and many of his colleagues have frequently had to reject locums applying for posts following conversations about their competence with previous employers.
“If my experience is reflected across all acute specialities around the NHS, there is a colossal clinical governance issue,” he warned.
Dr Hutchinson is proposing that an agency should be set up by the royal colleges, the Department and Health and NHS Employers to provide foreign doctors with advice on how the NHS system works before they leave their home countries. It could also give them an objective assessment of their clinical competencies and provide those whose skills are not up to scratch, a period of clinical attachment prior to starting paid work.
“I appreciate that this is a major undertaking and will require funding but I believe that it is overdue,” said Dr Hutchinson.
A Department of Health spokesperson said: ”In line with European policy the UK is required to recognise professional qualification of EEA nationals throughout the European Union.
“NHS organisations have a legal duty to ensure that all doctors are fit to practice and deliver services to the required standard. To do so they would be expected to look at professional experience to ensure that an individual would be fit for the role not just their qualifications.”
Tags: Locums, Overseas recruitment
It is about time that clinical comeptence and communication abilities - the two key aspects are assessed as rigorously for the EU doctors as they are for Non-EU doctors.
It does seem bizarre that a couple of years ago we booted out all the Indian doctors who spoke great English and were trained in a really sympathetic system.
And then we encourage loads of eastern European doctors in, many of whom have relatively poor English and difficult to verify qualifications and training.
Hate to say it but, “the world’s gone mad!” etc
Why did it take until someone got bumped off to make this happen?
Everyone has known about this issue for some time including the regulators. Sadly shows that only when things hit the headlines do the great and the good respond.
The GMC and The Government were warned that the ‘equivalence’ of the qualifications across Europe was debateable, if not a myth. It is true that those of Western Europe are more aligned to ours than some Eastern countries. It is interesting that Finlay Scott (Chief Exec og the GMC) is calling for the equivalent of the PLAB test to be applied to European doctors when he, surely, must know that it is against the law (of membership of the EU with ‘freedom of movement of labour’) - as pointed out, correctly, by the DoH spokesperson. Clearly those wishing to employ EU doctors, even as locums, must be particularly careful and must explore, in detail, their capabilities at interview before taking them on. But then, maybe if their interview is more demanding than for British graduates, this would be an ‘abuse of their human rights’!
Retired Orthopod