Hundreds of doctors from the EU who are registered to work in the UK have not had checks on clinical competence or language, it is suggested today.
Fewer than one in four have been required to prove their skills before being included on so-called “performers’ lists”, according to figures from NHS trusts.
Data released after freedom of information requests by health newspaper Pulse show managers have been slow to tighten procedures after a Guardian report last year revealed how a German doctor on his first shift killed David Gray, 70, in Cambridgeshire with an overdose of painkillers.
Our investigations into Daniel Ubani’s application to work in Britain prompted calls from the UK General Medical Council(GMC) and GPs for a review of the vetting system while the government ordered trusts to smarten their act.
EU law does not permit the GMC, responsible for the register of doctors qualified to work in the UK, to test EU doctors as it can other foreign doctors. However the Department of Health and GMC insists trusts must ensure they are fit for the job.
Pulse had responses from 108 trusts in England but only 35 could provide data. Among the 20 trusts providing details about tests on clinical competence, just 17% of doctors had undergone tests. Many trusts said some doctors had not been checked because the requirement was only introduced this year or was only being applied to new applicants.
Extrapolating the data, Pulse suggested up to 1500 untested doctors might be working in England.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, said the survey “appears to show worrying failings in the system of employer checks, which could put patients at risk.”
Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, and co-author of a report into out-of-hours care commissioned by the Labour government, said: “I am horrified that trusts appear to remain complacent despite the shock of what happened in Cambridgsehire and our review for ministers.” The coalition government’s plans to put out-of-hours care in the hands of GPs should spell out urgently how such checks should b e carried out after the change.
Stuart Gray, a GP in Kidderminster, Hereford and Worcester, whose father was killed by Ubani, said: “Lessons haven’t been learned, changes haven’t been made.What more does it take? It’s only a matter of time before there’s another death.”
The health department said EU doctors “can be subjected to language testing by an employer on a case by case basis. However, if a PCT is satisfied, on the basis of documentation received and/or an interview about a doctor’s language knowledge, there is no requirement on them to ask a doctor to sit a language test.”
THe Guardian UK