Good communication skills are desirable in any walk of life, and patients are right to expect that those treating them can communicate properly.
Already the General Medical Council ( GMC ) requires doctors who qualified outside Europe to speak English to a safe standard. Employers do also check language skills before appointing doctors of any nationality.
The issue of poor English skills came to a head 4 years ago when Dr Daniel Ubami ( a German-trained GP ) gave a patient a fatal overdose on his first and only shift in the UK.
From April of this year – not before time – there will be a legal duty to ensure a doctor’s English is adequate before employment, and also a national list of GP’s to prevent doctors already rejected in one part of the country ( as with Dr Ubami ) then taking up employment elsewhere.
Out of the quarter of a million or so doctors registered with the GMC to “ practise “ medicine ( perhaps “ work “ would be a better term ) in the UK, about 2/3 qualified in the UK, followed by India ( 1/10 ), Pakistan, South Africa, Ireland, Nigeria, Germany, Egypt, Greece and Italy. Only a fraction of 1% qualified in the Philippines – “ joebloggs’ “ wife being one.
With the huge number of UK applicants for every place in UK medical schools some might question why a third of registered doctors here are from abroad. They currently fill a gap in the UK health system and, even if desired, it would be a long time before all doctors in the UK could be trained here.
What is surely beyond doubt is the need for strict and equitable enforcement of communication skills, regardless of the country of qualification.
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