UK warning over foreign doctors

EU doctors would be able to work for four months unregistered

Patients' safety could be at risk from EU plans to allow foreign doctors to work unregistered in the UK, health watchdogs have warned.

The proposals would allow professional people, including doctors, to work wherever they choose in the European Union for 16 weeks a year.

But the Alliance of UK Health Regulators on Europe wants the proposal deleted.

A committee of MEPs is due to vote on the issue on Thursday.

The alliance, whose members include the General Medical Council (GMC) and the Nursing and Midwifery Council, say if the proposal was adopted, they would be powerless to act if problems arose from the care a patient received.

Information sharing

It wants regulators from each member state to share information when they take action against a professional on their register.

The danger with this directive is that patient safety is directly compromised from day one Sir Graeme Catto, GMC

"We need to able to ensure that all healthcare professionals registered in the UK are fit to practise and the effective exchange of information is key to this," GMC president Sir Graeme Catto said.

Sir Graeme told BBC Radio 4's Today programme UK regulators would not be aware of concerns over competence or disciplinary action against people coming to the country.

"The same mistakes might be replicated when they come to this country," he said.

He said under the current proposed directive people could be "fleeing from justice" in their country of origin and the UK medical profession would not know.

He said a simple solution would be to make it law that every health professional is registered with a regulator and that information travels with them when they move around the EU.

"The danger with this directive is that patient safety is directly compromised from day one," he added.

Supporters of the plan - contained within a draft Directive on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications - say it will help to raise standards across all professions throughout the EU.

Public protection

The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament is scheduled to vote on amendments to the draft later today.

Head of the committee and socialist MEP Manuel Medina Ortega said at the same time as providing free transit there would be contact between the different European regulators.

"There would have to be," he told Today on Thursday.

NMC president Jonathan Asbridge said: "Patients have the right to expect that they are protected by the regulatory system regardless of whether the healthcare professional treating them is in the country permanently or temporarily.

"We are urging MEPs to ensure that this measure is passed and that public protection safeguards are maintained."

The directive also affects other professionals, such as lawyers and architects, and their movements around the EU.

Shadow Health and Education Secretary Tim Yeo agreed that the directive could potentially harm patients.

He said: "This directive would mean that if a patient received poor care from a doctor who was registered by another European Country and practicing within the four month window, the UK regulators would have no power to take action.

"Furthermore, there would be no means of preventing the same incident from happening again to other patients.

"While the free movement of health professionals throughout the EU is welcome, patient safety must be put first.

"It is unacceptable, therefore, that a doctor, about whom we know absolutely nothing, could practice in the UK and not be regulated by the appropriate UK authorities."