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New patient safety requirements

High-profile cases in the UK in recent years have highlighted concerns about the clinical competence and language skills of some healthcare professionals from other EU member states.

The updated directive means doctors, nurses and other health professionals moving from one European country to another will have to meet new patient safety requirements, including checks on their ability to communicate well in English.

It will also require states to establish an 'alert system' to warn each other if a clinician is struck off or is under disciplinary sanctions.

Final confirmation

Today’s (9 October) vote in the European Parliament confirms an informal agreement on the revised directive reached by EU decision-makers in the summer. The revised directive covers:

• Language checks – the directive will allow regulatory bodies to check health professionals' language competence and test it where necessary, before allowing them to practise. This means doctors and nurses would have to prove they can speak English if they want to practise in the UK.
  
  
• Proactive warning system – health regulators across Europe will have to proactively warn each other within three days when a health professional is banned or has restrictions imposed on their practice.
  
  This is a major improvement from the existing requirement which obliges regulatory bodies only to respond to requests for information from their European counterparts. This will prevent rogue clinicians from “shopping around” Europe and travelling to another country to treat patients.
  
  
• Training – health professionals will only get professional registration if they meet all the minimum training requirements for their profession. European member states will be required to actively support continuing professional development for clinicians.
  
  Additionally, doctors' training will remain at five years, which is the current standard for Britain's well-established, high quality medical training.

Concerns

The revised directive takes account of concerns raised by the NHS European Office relating to the European Commission's original proposals on updating the Directive on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications.

Some of the proposals originally put forward for the directive had threatened to weaken safeguards aimed at preventing incompetent or dangerous health professionals from practising.

Checks and balances

Elisabetta Zanon, director of the NHS European Office, said:"The NHS needs to ensure the right checks and balances are in place to protect patients from dangerous care by health professionals. We have worked hard to ensure that patients are safeguarded, and are pleased that the revised directive has taken account of many of the concerns we raised.

First priority

"We need health professionals to be able to move around Europe freely and use their expertise in other countries, but patient safety must be our first priority. NHS organisations must be confident that European staff who come to work in the UK have been properly checked and that their qualifications, experience and other credentials are up to date and meet minimum standards.”

Find out more

Find out more about the updated directive in a new NHS European Office briefing.