Calls for stronger checks on the movement of European healthcare workers

The NHS Confederation’s European Office is calling on the EU to strengthen checks on healthcare workers moving between countries in an attempt to protect patients from unsafe practice.

The European Commission is reviewing the Professional Qualifications Directive with the aim of making it easier for professionals to work in other EU countries without having to come into opposition with bureaucratic red tape.

But in response to the Commission’s consultation on the directive, the NHS Confederation’s European Office calls for exceptions for healthcare staff, arguing that freedom of movement for workers must not jeopardise the safety and quality of care.

They demand that the UK regulatory bodies must be able to check the qualifications and competence, including language skills, of healthcare professionals who come to work in the UK. It maintains that these checks should remain the primary responsibility of the employer.

The NHS Confederation’s European Office believes the EU should ensure the revised Directive includes updating the minimum qualification standards required to practice in Europe and the introduction of a shared electronic system to exchange information about professionals and their qualifications in order to discourage fraud and speed up applications for registration.

Additionally, it proposes a European-wide alert system to enable regulators to warn each other if incompetent or fraudulent health workers try moving to another country to work.

Elisabetta Zanon, director of the NHS Confederation’s European Office, said: “There is a tension that needs resolving. On the one hand we have the understandable desire to simplify and speed up recognition of professionals. On the other, the NHS needs to ensure the right checks and balances are in place to protect patients from dangerous care from health professionals.”

The Commission will bring forward their proposals for European legislation at the end of this year.