Regulations for doctors in Europe under review

Regulations governing how doctors in Europe practise are currently being reviewed.

A joint statement in which the European Commission suggests how the system could be improved has been signed by 26 European medical regulators.

The European Commission recommends that the regulations should assess the language and clinical skills of migrant doctors as part of their professional review. It also suggests that medical regulators must respond to all information requests from their counterparts, and set up the necessary alert systems to inform other doctors when regulatory action is taken.

These measures are in response to concerns that regulators do not have a system in place to share registration and disciplinary information about a doctor with their counterparts in other countries.

The joint statement was agreed following a series of meetings between the General Medical Council, the German Medical Association and the French Order of Doctors.