The government’s Health Committee has said that doctors from overseas who join the NHS should face more stringent tests to make sure their English language skills are adequate.

BBC News reports that MPs warned that NHS trusts ‘were not doing their jobs’ by failing to check language and medical skills of doctors who come to work in the UK. There are fears that many patients are being treated by doctors who may be ‘incompetent’ – or whose fluency in English is not satisfactory.

Fears were raised after the death of a patient who was given an overdose of painkillers by a doctor from Germany.

David Gray from Cambridgeshire died two years ago and an investigation found that the doctor who treated him – Daniel Ubani – administered 10 times the normal dose of diamorphine because his command of the English language was flawed.

Dr Urbani’s language skills had led to him being turned down for work by the NHS in Leeds –but he was later employed in Cornwall and then Cambridgeshire.

MPs said, however, that ministers should push for changes to EU rules to allow checks on doctors from abroad by the General Medical Council (GMC).

EU rules allowing free movement of labour mean the GMC is unable to carry out clinical or language checks on doctors from EU countries – despite being able to do this for doctors from outside the EU.

NHS trusts have their own tests, but the MPs said they were not always used – and there are currently no exact data revealing how many doctors from abroad are used for out-of-hours work. Ministers said in evidence to the Health Committee that it was a ‘limited’ problem, however.

MPs looked at the system of how overseas doctors are tested following criticism from the coroner at Mr Gray’s inquest.

Mr Gray’s son, Dr Stuart Gray – himself a GP – said that any proposed changes must be made ‘urgently’.

© 5r1 Limited 2010