Lords call for proper testing of EU health workers in the UK

In a widely welcomed report, the Social Policies and Consumer Protection sub-committee of the European Union Select Committee of the House of Lords has sharply criticised the European Union MRPQ Directive, underpinning the mobility of healthcare professionals within Europe, for its failure to protect the public from doctors ill-equipped to carry out the duties expected of them.

As a taster, here is a short video, featuring one of the Committee's members...

The report, "Safety First: Mobility of Healthcare Professionals in the EU", notes that whilst employers in the United Kingdom are obliged to recognise the qualifications of health workers, including doctors, nurses and midwives, from other EU states without question, they are barred from carrying out language testing to ensure that they have the verbal skills required to deal with patients. Indeed, there is no scope to verify whether or not an individual has maintained their skills since receiving their qualification.

It notes that the definition of key roles, such as 'general practitioner', varies in terms of its scope across Europe, with some patients seen directly by consultants for conditions treated by GPs here. In some countries, babies are delivered by gynaecologists, whereas in others, midwives are at the heart of things. The question of definition, and hence skill and experience levels, is at the core of the problem, and the Committee called for an updating of the minimum standards as currently outlined in an Annex to the Directive.

Questions relating to medical ethics were also touched upon, with the Committee noting that some groups of healthcare professionals were required to have an understanding of the issues surrounding ethical behaviour whilst others, including doctors, were not.

In brief though, the Committee made three core recommendations;

• regulatory bodies (including the General Medical Council, Nursing and Midwifery Council, General Dental Council and General Pharmaceutical Council) should be allowed to test the language skills of ALL non-UK applicants
• an alert mechanism should be implemented so that authorities can share fitness to practice information and warn each other about practitioners who have been subject to disciplinary proceedings
• the list of qualifications and skills recognised by the EU Directive must be updated

Hopefully, the Government, and the European Commission, will act upon these recommendations by 2013, although it is not likely that the impact will become effective until 2017, at the earliest.