UK medical regulator launches inquiry on foreign doctors

Britains medical regulator has launched a major inquiry to determine the competence of foreign doctors, after it emerged that they are now twice as likely to face disciplinary hearings as UK medical graduates.

London, Aug.10 : Britain's medical regulator has launched a major inquiry to determine the competence of foreign doctors, after it emerged that they are now twice as likely to face disciplinary hearings as UK medical graduates.

According to The Times, figures reveal that triple the number of doctors who trained abroad were struck off the UK medical register last year, as compared to figures in 2005.

The findings, part of a report compiled by the General Medical Council, have prompted the profession's regulator to commission seven research projects, which will cover issues including the competence of foreign doctors and whether they are subject to institutional racism within the health service.

More than 5,000 cases were dealt with by the GMC in 2006, 303 of which culminated in fitness-to-practise hearings and 54 doctors were struck off. Of these, nearly two thirds - 35 doctors - had trained outside the UK.

The range of offences included sexual misconduct, dishonesty and failing to provide an adequate level of care for patients.

Last month, Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to tighten checks on overseas trained medical staff after three NHS doctors were charged in the attempted car bomb attacks on London and Glasgow in June this year.

But medical regulators suggest that patient safety may be compromised by current procedures, which require some doctors to produce no more than a degree certificate and a letter of reference before they can start work.

The GMC has commissioned researchers to look into the pattern, for which there is currently "no good explanation", it said.

It added that doctors were only struck off when it would endanger patients and the wider public to do otherwise.

One of the projects coordinated by the Economic and Social Research Council is already under way, while six others are due to start in the next few months.

They include proposals from academics at the London School of Economics and the universities of Newcastle and Leicester to investigate how doctors come to work in the UK and set out which of them might present a particular risk to patients.

A Department of Health spokesperson said all NHS doctors were subject to stringent pre-employment checks.

ANI