Healthcare chiefs ordered to check all foreign doctors can speak English

Published on Thursday 11 March 2010 21:35

MEDICAL employers across Scotland are being warned to check that any doctors they employ are fit for the job and can speak good enough English.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is writing to NHS managers and private health companies to highlight gaps in what the regulator is able to check with medics wanting to work in the UK.

This includes laws which mean doctors who qualified in European Union countries do not have to complete language or skills tests before being allowed to join the medical register.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, told The Scotsman that they wanted to change this situation, allowing checks to be made on both the language and competency of doctors coming to work in the UK from the EU.

But he said in the meantime he had decided to write to employers telling them exactly what the GMC could currently do and what they should be doing to make sure doctors were fit to do their job.

Currently around 21,400 doctors on the GMC register come from European Economic Area (EEA) countries.

Mr Dickson, who became GMC chief executive in January, said he was concerned at gaps in what the regulator could currently do to make checks on doctors coming from the EU.

He said doctors could get on the medical register if they got their primary medical qualification in the UK. They could also come from a non-EU country and join the register, but the GMC would test their English language skills and competence.

"But ask me what I know about doctors coming from the European Union and the answer is almost nothing," Mr Dickson said.

"First I can't, under UK law as it is currently written, in conjunction with European law, ask them to undergo any form of language test.

"Secondly, I can't test their competence. I can ask to see a primary medical qualification and if there is some specialist qualification."

He added: "That's the law as it stands. It is profoundly unsatisfactory and we would like to get it changed."

A letter is now going out to all health boards in Scotland and private health providers alerting them to their responsibilities in checking doctors.

The letter states that inclusion on the medical register "provides limited assurance about a doctor's fitness to practise".

"In particular you will wish to know whether the applicant had to prove their professional and linguistic competency to the GMC," it says.

Mr Dickson said the GMC was hoping that changes could be made to both UK and EU legislation in the coming years to close the gap and allow more checks to be made on European doctors.

He said that patient safety should "trump" any concerns about free movement of labour.

"The purpose of the register is to provide assurance to patients and doctors and employers. Currently the register can't provide that assurance in relation to doctors from the EU," he added.

Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Scotland Patients Association, agreed that the GMC should be able to check European doctors' language and other skills. "It is totally unacceptable," she said. "It is vital that doctors are able to understand patients."

A British Medical Association Scotland spokeswoman said: "When employing doctors from overseas it is essential that NHS employers check the skills and qualifications of all doctors."

German GP 'had no insurance and could not understand even basic terminology'

CONCERNS about the language skills of doctors have been raised previously in Scotland.

In 2006, a German doctor who worked in practices around Scotland was struck off the medical register.

Serious concerns had been raised about his knowledge of English, as well as his medical skills.

Dr Manfred Heinrich was employed as a locum working in communities in Lanarkshire, the Highlands and Islay. But evidence submitted to the General Medical Council suggested that he was unable to understand basic medical terminology.

One concerned doctor who saw Dr Heinrich working was so worried by his assessment of patients that he wondered whether he was qualified.

The GMC also found that during the nine months Dr Heinrich saw patients in Scotland he did not have current indemnity insurance to cover any compensation claims.

After hearing the evidence, the GMC decided to remove his name from the medical register to protect patients.

Last month a coroner in England ruled that another German doctor unlawfully killed a patient while working an out-of-hours shift.

Dr Daniel Ubani gave David Gray an overdose of diamorphine during his first NHS shift in Cambridgeshire.

The inquest into the death heard that one health authority had rejected Dr Ubani's application to work in the UK because of inadequate English.