Reducing the number of regulated professions

Dec 29 2011 by Andrew Jackson, Buckinghamshire Advertiser

For those people who work in the European Union, a proposal published by the European Commission will assist professional workers in having their qualifications recognised across the single market, while tightening up protection against rogue or ineffective workers.

It will simplify and reduce the number of regulated professions, and create a single portal with information about how to have qualifications recognised.

My Conservative colleagues have also pushed for a warning system for healthcare professionals so that a ban on practising medicine in one country would be conveyed to all EU authorities, with added tests for national authorities to be able to test the language skills of healthcare professionals.

I believe these proposals will make it easier for qualified professionals to apply for jobs across the single market, and harder for unqualified professionals to gain employment in sensitive sectors such as healthcare.

The automatic recognition of qualifications is an important benefit of the Single Market and we must break down the remaining barriers.

We need to move to a system where we prevent a repetition of the tragic cases where foreign doctors have mistreated patients because of inadequate training or a poor command of the local language.

These new rules aim to prevent a repeat of this situation by creating a new minimum standards for healthcare professionals and an EU-wide alert system if anyone is struck off.

In the UK stronger language requirements on healthcare professionals is now a pressing concern.

This new directive should allow healthcare authorities in particular the opportunity to test language skills.

It is simply not right that a nurse treating a patient is unable to fully understand what he or she is being told.

Let me know what you think at richardjames.ashworth@europarl.europa.eu

RICHARD ASHWORTH Conservative MEP

for the South-East