The General Medical Council in Britain has been calling for new powers to allow them to test the language skills and clinical competence of European doctors and the death of pensioner David Gray has galvanised others.
Dr Daniel Ubani was on his firsst shift as an out of hours GP in Cambridgeshire when he gave David Gray, 70, a fatal overdose of morphine, a drug he was unfamiliar with.
Ubani admitted gross negligence and manslaughter in Germany and has been struck off the medical register in Britain.
Now doctors regulators in 25 other European countries including France and Germany have agreed with the GMC to call for changes to the system.
Under current EU directives, regulators in Britain cannot force doctors to sit extra tests on their language or clinical skills before registering them to practice here.
It has been left to individual employers to check doctors are competant and this has been patchy.
The EU directive is due to be reviewed in 2012 and the regulators have signed a joint statement ahead of that to call for greater powers.
They also want a new mandatory system to allow information to be shared more readily between countries when there is a problem with a doctor’s competance.
Currently there are only voluntary agreements to share information.
Niall Dickson, the Chief Executive of the General Medical Council said: “We believe that patient safety must always take priority over the free movement of labour. In order to protect patients in the UK, we need to ensure that doctors have the necessary clinical and communication skills to practise here safely.
“We are working closely with the Department of Health and the European Commission to close the current gaps in our regulatory system to further protect patients. We are pleased that the Government has made this issue a priority.“
Telegraph UK