Why is this news?

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Discussion

8Ace

Original Poster:

2,696 posts

199 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
quotequote all
Doctors must speak english to work in NHS.

So prior to this, there was no requirement. The article highlights one case in particular but how many others hae suffered / died as a rasult of miscommunication. Anyone had experience of poor care as a result?

greygoose

8,271 posts

196 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
quotequote all
It has always been the case that doctors who qualified overseas and didn't hold a qualification recognised by the UK had to pass a Professional and Linguistic Assessment Board test in order to register with the GMC, I don't know whether this applied to those who qualified in the EU though.

shouldbworking

4,769 posts

213 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
quotequote all
Not through language difficulties, but I've definately had an issue over cultural differences when I told a foreign doctor working in the uk that he was mistaken. It would seem that's very much not the done thing where he comes from.

Didn't stop him being wrong. Didn't stop the NHS or general medical council from covering up their ears and going LALALALALALALA until I went away.

Eric Mc

122,086 posts

266 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
quotequote all
Is it not news then?

Shaw Tarse

31,543 posts

204 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
quotequote all
There was chap inthe Dudley area who was overdosed due to a mistake by a non English speaking doctor.

anonymous-user

55 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
quotequote all
The Government for some time misinterpreted EU law as saying that there could be no language test for doctors from other EU member states. That was of course daft, and was not what the EU Commission thought, or how other EU member states applied the rules. Belatedly, the Government has brought in a language test for EU doctors. As noted above, there has always been a language test for non EU doctors.

There is a wider problem to do with making places available for doctor training. Some EU countries train doctors for a minimum of six years. Others, including the UK, train them for a minimum of five years and then make them do another year training on the job (Foundation Year 1, what used to be called the House Officer year). Then they do Foundation Year 2, and then they specialise or train as GPs. I am deliberately simplifying the system for brevity. There are issues about ensuring that sufficient Foundation Year places are available for graduates from five year medical degree courses. Competition for medical training jobs is now taking place across the EU.

Free movement of workers (including practitioners of graduate professions), and cross border recognition of qualifications have been axiomatic to the EU Common Market model for decades, but only now are these principles becoming a reality, and member states are still working them out in practice.


eccles

13,740 posts

223 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
quotequote all
Shaw Tarse said:
There was chap inthe Dudley area who was overdosed due to a mistake by a non English speaking doctor.
Do you mean this one in Cambs?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/04/gps-...

Shaw Tarse

31,543 posts

204 months

Tuesday 26th February 2013
quotequote all
eccles said:
Shaw Tarse said:
There was chap inthe Dudley area who was overdosed due to a mistake by a non English speaking doctor.
Do you mean this one in Cambs?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/04/gps-...
I thought he was local (well I remember the local paper being outraged!!!!)
<goes back to the Daily Mail website Katie Price is married AGAIN>