In evidence yesterday to the Lords EU Social Policies and Consumer Protection Sub-Committee, Chief Executive and Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), Professor Dickon Weir Hughes, said that as a result of the current EU Directive on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications which applies to healthcare professionals working in another Member State, the NMC were being forced to register certain EU nurses and midwives who would not have made the grade had they been UK applicants.

He said:

"I ... have concerns about the decisions I am forced to make in favour of certain EU applicants. Certainly if those people had been UK applicants, they would not be admitted to the Register and there is no doubt about that."

The evidence session also covered the variation in medical training across the EU and how this had undermined confidence in the system of automatic recognition of qualifications, potentially putting patients at risk.

Professor Sir Peter Rubin, Chair of the General Medical Council (GMC), said that under EU proposals, the UK would have no choice but to recognise lower quality training:

"A qualification from a university in this country saying someone is a doctor means, for example, they spent at least three years in their medical school training seeing patients, learning to do things with patients. In some other jurisdictions, that education would have been almost entirely classroom-based and so they will have a medical degree - which we will have no choice but to recognise - and yet they will lack most of the skills you would expect a doctor to possess....there can be stark differences between the content and the outcomes of training between Member States."

Arguing for changes to the Directive he continued:

"the British Public has the right to know that [the GMC], the competent authority, will ensure that only those doctors that are fit to practice in this country get onto our register. We feel we should be the gatekeeper in that regard."

GMC Chief Executive and Registrar Mr Niall Dickson, said:

"...there is a general concern that patient safety has to be a card that is more strongly played in future... free movement of doctors is very different from some other professions because of the consequences in relation to patient safety."

Mr Dickson said the GMC wanted the EU to recognise that health professionals were a special case and either cover them in a separate legislative instrument or give them greater flexibility where patient safety was at stake, for example in the area of language testing.

"We would certainly like some specificity ... whereby [the EU Directive] would recognise that being a health professional...gives you privileges which also means the harm you can do is very great... it is different from some other professions where that consideration does not take place."

The Committee will now consider the GMC and NMC's evidence. It will hear next from the European Commission and the National Association of Local Involvement Networks (LINks), representing patients. Its report will be published in the autumn.

Notes

1. The Committee's inquiry is investigating how the mobility of healthcare professionals can be encouraged throughout the EU, whilst ensuring patient safety and how greater confidence can be injected into the system, and is being conducted within the context of the European Commission's review of the Professional Qualifications Directive.[1]

2. The evidence session took place on Thursday 30 June 2011. A recording of proceedings is available here. A transcript will be available on the Committee's website later this week.

3. The witnesses were:

- Professor Sir Peter Rubin, Chair, General Medical Council
- Mr Niall Dickson, Chief Executive and Registrar, General Medical Council
- Professor Dickon Weir-Hughes, Chief Executive and Registrar, Nursing and Midwifery Council
- Dr Katerina Kolyva, Assistant Director of Nursing and Midwifery Policy, Nursing and Midwifery Council

4. Future evidence sessions include:

Thursday 7 July, from 9.45am, Committee Room 1 of the House of Lords

- Jonathan Faull, Director General Internal Market and Services the European Commission (via video link)

- Ruth Marsden, Vice Chair, National Association of LINks Members (NALM)

Thursday 14 July,

- Anne Milton, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health,

5. The evidence session next week is open to the public. Journalists wishing to attend should go to Parliament's Cromwell Green Entrance. Please allow time for security screening.

6. The House of Lords Social Policies and Consumer Protection EU Sub-Committee is one of seven sub-committees of the Lords EU Select Committee. It scrutinises EU proposals on all aspects of social policy and consumer affairs. The Select Committee holds the Government to account for its actions at EU level. Its Members include a former opposition spokesperson for Europe, a former President of the Professional Standards Board, a member of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Chair of Consumer Focus and the Deputy Chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights.

7. The Sub-Committee is chaired by Baroness Young.

[1] Directive 2005/36/EC of 7 December 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications

Source:
House of Lords