EU dictat stops checks on Doctor qualifications

Safety alert as EU blocks vital checks on doctors' qualifications: from 2018

• The EU will 'soon prevent hospitals from making vital checks on doctors'
• NHS will have to employ European doctors without checking qualifications
• Due to planned introduction of European Professional Cards, set for 2018
• Cards will allow medics to work in the NHS without a qualifications check 

The European Union is a threat to patient safety because it will soon prevent hospitals from making vital checks on doctors, a former health minister warns today.

Unless Britain votes to leave the EU, the NHS will have to employ European doctors without being able to check their qualifications in as little as two years, MP Gisela Stuart said.

This is because of the planned introduction of European Professional Cards, due to come into force for doctors in 2018. These will allow medics to work in the NHS without having their qualifications checked.

Mrs Stuart also said that without a Brexit, the UK will never be able to carry out systematic language tests on all doctors currently working in the country.
Unless Britain votes to leave the EU, the NHS will have to employ European doctors without being able to check their qualifications in as little as two years, MP Gisela Stuart said (file image)
+ Unless Britain votes to leave the EU, the NHS will have to employ European doctors without being able to check their qualifications in as little as two years, MP Gisela Stuart said (file image)

Under European rules, hospitals are only allowed to test those who moved to Britain after 2014 New figures show that in the past two years, 900 doctors from the continent have been turned down for work in UK hospitals or GP practices because their English is not good enough.

The Vote Leave campaign group says this suggests that hundreds of doctors from the continent may already be working in the UK without sufficient English skills because they came before language tests began Almost 11 per cent of doctors working in the UK were first registered in another European country.

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