10:56am Thursday 18th March 2010
WHILE it is nice to see the General Medical Council (GMC) following UKIP's lead on calling for a proper inspection and vetting policy for EU doctors, what is needed is the Government to seek a change to the EU directive that allows little or no vetting of the competence or otherwise of EU trained doctors.
Niall Dickson, chief executive of the General Medical Council, has written to health trusts to explain how there is a gaping hole in the registration system for doctors coming to work in the UK from EU member states. Currently such doctors do face less stringent tests than medical staff from other countries.
And alluding to the death of David Gray, who was killed in Cambridgeshire in 2008 when an overworked doctor from Germany accidentally administered the wrong dose of diamorphine, Mr Dickson told the House of Commons Health Select Committee: "Free movement of labour is fine but, in our view, patient safety trumps free movement of labour."
The primary concern of any government should the health and well-being of its citizens, fundamental to that is a properly trained, inspected and vetted medical profession.
David Campbell Bannerman, UKIP's health spokesman said: "UKIP has been calling for this for the past few years. The tragic case of David Gray shows that the EU is more interested in homogeneity than people's health. It is outrageous.
"The National Health Service is not the International Health Service.
The Government discriminates against Commonwealth doctors in favour of doctors from the European Economic Area, while there is no way of legally checking their credentials."
We in Swindon know all too well the consequences of clinical mismanagement with our own trust on trial for an unnecessary death. It is vital that we, the patient, has confidence in the competence of health care professionals, if the GMC do not, where does that leave us?
ROBERT FEAL-MARTINEZ Head of Media UKIP Swindon South Marston Swindon
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/trade_directory/