Plan to centralise NHS checks on EU doctors

The NHS in England is to take central control of assessing the competence and language skills of doctors from the EU after flaws were revealed in the present system of local checks. The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, plans to hand over the commissioning of primary care services from local NHS trusts to GP consortia, but checks on foreign doctors from Europe will become a national responsibility under a new central board. A Department of Health spokeswoman said the government would look at how the new NHS commissioning board might help to strengthen the system of checking doctors' language skills. A Guardian investigation last year revealed how Daniel Ubani, a German doctor on his first UK shift, in Cambridgeshire, accidentally killed David Gray, 70, with an overdose of painkillers. The Guardian's investigations into 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, and the government ordered trusts to smarten up their act. Data released this month after Freedom of Information requests from the medical newspaper Pulse suggested that fewer than one in four EU doctors registered to work in Britain had been checked before being added to so-called performers' lists. EU law does not permit the GMC, which is responsible for the register of doctors qualified to work in the UK, to test EU doctors as it can other foreign doctors. However, the government and GMC insist trusts must still ensure they are fit for the job. The health department says it would be unlawful to require EU doctors to undergo a further test of clinical skills, but "there will need to be an assessment of whether individuals are able to demonstrate the competencies necessary for the role". Lansley has previously said he was looking at ways to stop foreign doctors "slipping through the net", but told Pulse this week : "We're very keen on convincing the European commission we can be compliant with the law in spirit and letter if we have a mechanism geared to employment of doctors rather than registration." Twenty-five European medical regulators, including the GMC, recently suggested ways in which the current system for regulating the movement of doctors in Europe could be improved.