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A WIN IN EUROPE.
On Wednesday (11 February) the European
Parliament voted in favour of amendments to the draft Directive
on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications. The
original draft would have allowed any practitioner from any EU
country to work in another EU country unregistered, for up to
16 weeks.
The vote means (if the Directive
is adopted in its amended format):
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The '16 week rule' will be scrapped,
and all dental professionals will need to be registered with
the competent authority of the host country.
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EU Member States will be required
to share information about the fitness to practise of professionals
moving between member states.
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Migrant professionals will need
to demonstrate their language skills before registration.
Responding to the vote, the President,
of the UK General Dental Council [GDC], said:
"I am delighted with the outcome
of last Wednesday's European Parliament vote. The GDC, as part
of the Alliance of Health Regulators on Europe (AURE), has been
campaigning on this proposed Directive since March 2002. Last
November, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee amended
the Commission's original proposal to reflect issues raised by
the GDC and AURE. This vote confirms that these have been taken
seriously.
"GDC staff have been relentless
in highlighting our concerns to UK health and government departments,
lobbying MEPs in Strasbourg and Brussels, and working with dental
regulators and professional associations across Europe to put
pressure on their own governments. I am delighted that MEPs have
recognised the shared concerns of health regulators and professional
associations across Europe and acted to ensure that patient safety
is protected.
"Wednesday's vote is good news for
patients throughout the EU. It is also good news for the dental
profession, in its determination to preserve high standards of
care. We hope that these decisions will be endorsed by the European
Council of Ministers later in the spring".
NOTE. The EU Directive on
Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications has not yet
been enacted. The original (unamended) draft Directive would have
allowed healthcare professionals from any EU country to work for
up to four months per year, every year, in another EU country,
without being registered with a regulator. In practice, this would
have meant that if there was a problem with the care a person
received, the regulator would have had no powers to take action
against the professional in question. There would also be no means
of preventing the same problem from happening again with another
patient.
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