UK must ban poor overseas doctors, says medical chief

12 April 2012

Poorly-trained overseas doctors who cannot speak good English should not be allowed to treat patients in the UK, a doctors' leader said today.

Tighter regulations must be brought in to prevent a repeat of the case of Dr Daniel Ubani, who killed a pensioner with an overdose of painkillers on his first shift in Britain, said Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association.

Nigerian-born Dr Ubani, who had flown to Britain from Germany, injected David Gray, 70, with 100mg of a pain relief drug - 10 times the recommended dose.

He was struck off the medical register earlier this month after being found guilty of making "recurrent mistakes" in caring for Mr Gray and two other patients.

Today, speaking at the BMA's conference in Brighton, Dr Meldrum said the UK "seemed to be able to do little or nothing to check that doctors from overseas - especially from Europe - meet the proper standards of language and competence."

He said the UK had benefited enormously from overseas doctors and would continue to do so but the Ubani case "has shocked us all".

He added: "It cannot be acceptable for poorly trained, badly regulated doctors whose knowledge of English is about as good as my knowledge of Chinese, to be able to practise - virtually unchallenged - in the UK."

The Government and the General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, are currently in discussion about EU rules which prevent the GMC from being able to test the language ability or clinical competence of overseas doctors.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, has said it "remains extremely concerned that the current arrangements do not provide patients with the protection they need".

Dr Meldrum insisted the situation had not arisen as a result of the 2004 GP contract, which allowed doctors to opt out of providing out-of-hours care in return for around a £6,000 drop in salary.

"That is rubbish," Dr Meldrum said. "It has been caused by under-funding and mismanagement of out-of-hours services by too many primary care organisations and by poor enforcement of, admittedly inadequate, regulations."

He said his sympathy went out to the family of Mr Gray "but sympathy is not enough.

"We must ensure that the doctors who treat our patients are competent to do so, that they have the necessary language skills and that they are subject to the same regulation as UK doctors."

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