Free Movement of Doctors in the EU

1. Free Movement of Doctors in the EU The UK Consultant Physician Perspective

2. Issues • The different settings • The need for an EU supported workforce • Specific issues in hospital care

3. The settings

4. Out of hours GP care • High profile • Often employ non-UK professionals • Local NHS provider responsible for assuring professional competencies (including language) • Responsible for large numbers of hospital admissions

5. Foundation year 1 • Free movement from EU • Need for shadowing • Gaps left if doctors fail to perform • How comparable are basic medical qualifications across EU?

6. Locum hospital jobs • Large demand for locums • Often short notice • Evidence of concerns about competencies of external locums • No consistent method to assess/assure competencies • EWTD has limited internal locums

7. Consultants • Specialist qualifications vary across EU • EU focus on length of training not competencies • UK specialists often have different skill mix to EU specialists, e.g. in acute medicine • UK seen as attractive place to work as a specialist

8. The need for an EU supported workforce • Vacancy rates in junior doctors • Difficult to fill specialist posts in particular areas of the UK • The right of free movement across borders

9. Vacancy rates

10. Sickness rates

11. Hard-to-fill specialties

12. How often do you use locums?

14. Specific concerns for hospital care • Ensuring adequate competencies and language skills for locums and specialists • Revalidation • Costs of skills/language assessments for hospitals under current economic pressures • Optimising out-of-hours care to limit the number of inappropriate hospital admissions

15. Language – who is responsible for checking? " Persons benefiting from the recognition of professional qualifications shall have a knowledge of languages necessary for practising the profession in the host member state" 2005/36/EC Article 53

16. The HPRO card

17. Questions