Directive 2005/36/EC

1. Directive 2005/36/EC

2. GMC concerns • Single market freedoms provide access to skills, experience and opportunity • Current framework is focused on removing obstacles to free movement • Free movement of labour can also raise concerns over patient safety – it must be combined with public responsibilities for patient safety

3. GMC concerns (continued) • Medicine is linguistically, institutionally and culturally specific • National regulatory approaches differ • Risk that impaired professionals may exploit free movement rules

4. Evaluation of Directive 2005/36/EC (continued) • Title VI, Article 60 • The Commission shall draw up every five years* a report on the implementation of Directive • *by 2012

5. Evaluation of Directive 2005/36/EC (continued) • Focus of the evaluation: • Effectiveness • Efficiency • Relevance • Coherence

6. Evaluation of Directive 2005/36/EC (continued) • Experience reports from competent authorities for: • Architects • Dentists • Doctors • Nurses • Midwives • Pharmacists • Veterinary surgeons

7. Experience reports • Based on DG MARKT questionnaire: • Recognition on permanent basis • Temporary mobility • Minimum training requirements • Administrative cooperation • Other – language skills

8. Experience reports • Meetings in May and July to share experiences on the implementation of the Directive • Competent authorities in each member state to draft a report by September 2010 • Submit common experiences to DG MARKT

9. Overcoming the challenges • Promoting competence assurance mechanisms for doctors and healthcare professionals (revalidation) • Legal duty on regulators to share fitness to practise information to ensure patient safety • Temporary and occasional provision of services • The Directive’s Annexes

10. Overcoming the challenges (continued) Internal Market Information System (IMI): • compulsory for regulators • more flexible • allow for proactive sharing of information by extending its legal base (i.e. alert mechanism in the Services Directive)

11. Overcoming the challenges (continued) Language testing Article 53 Persons benefiting from the recognition of professional qualifications shall have a knowledge of languages necessary for practising the profession in the host member state

12. Overcoming the challenges (continued) • ... there is nothing in EU rules to stop authorities in the UK submitting doctors from outside the UK to language tests appropriate to the work they are being asked to carry out, especially if the authorities have reason to be concerned about a doctor's level of English. • "[The authorities] must give the doctor an opportunity to prove their standard of English – for example by bringing along appropriate qualifications or by having a chat with them to check their understanding. If the competent authority is not convinced that the standard is good enough, they can then impose a language test. So the Directive does not forbid the competent authority from imposing tests in such circumstances.“ • (Commission statement - 8 April 2010)

13. Overcoming the challenges (continued) • Information for patients and employers that its transparent, fair, robust • Standards, guidance and help for patients freely available to the public via website and on request • Freely accessible web-based real-time list of registered medical practitioners • Regulatory redress / complaint mechanisms • Publicly available information on disciplinary hearings and decisions

14. Thank you www.gmc-uk.org