Off the record: mutual recognition of professional qualifications

The BMA has pushed hard to defend the free movement of professionals while securing the highest possible standards in quality of care and patient safety, writes the association's EU policy manager Paul Laffin  Approximately one in 10 doctors working in the UK — about 30,000 — received their primary medical qualification in another EEA (European Economic Area) state. This makes the EU’s Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive a fairly significant piece of legislation for the NHS and the BMA. Indeed, currently more than 8,000 BMA members are from other EEA states, with more than 2,000 having qualified in Ireland and more than 1,000 in Germany. For comparison, there are 561 BMA members practising in a total of 24 other European countries, with Ireland (149) and Germany (77) once again topping the charts. The directive, which governs the free movement of professions throughout the EEA, was amended at EU level in 2013 and came into force in the UK on 18 January this year.   Free movement With such a significant portion of the UK’s medical profession having qualified elsewhere, the BMA is a staunch supporter of the principle of the free movement of professionals. We worked hard to ensure that the amended directive respected this principle, while securing the highest possible quality of care and patient safety. The fact that the directive now permits European regulators to check applicants’ language skills ahead of reg...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news