More medical negligence claims to rise from foreign doctors?

Published on 1 Jul 2010 under category: legal

More medical negligence cases could arise in the NHS unless foreign doctors in the NHS are given tougher language tests.

The chairman of the British Medical Association (BMA) said recently that some doctors are being allowed to work in the NHS despite poor English language skills.

Dr Hamish Meldrum said that there needed to be tougher regulation to prevent medical negligence cases such as that upheld against the German-born doctor Daniel Ubani.

The struck-off doctor was found guilty of killing pensioner David Gray.

"We seem 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.

"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," Mr Meldrum told an annual BMA meeting.

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