The mobility of healthcare professionals in Europe and the revision of the EU profesional qualifications directive were the focus of a very high level debate hosted by the Royal College of Physicians in London, on 11 July.
The European Roundtable on “Mobility of Healthcare Professionals in Europe: Revision of the EU Professional Qualifications Directive” was organised by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in London.
This high level European event provided a space for strategic discussions on the revision of the directive and brought together a wide representation of health professionals, patient groups, European and national public authorities, academia, researchers, Members of the European Parliaments and others.
A presentation on the revision process of the Directive 2005/36/EC was given by Jürgen Tiedje, from the Directorate General Internal Market and Services of the European Commission. The speech focused on the current situation, the automatic recognition/training requirements, the case by case recognition/general system, the proactive alerts, the language skills, the European Professional Card, as well as the next steps in the revision of the directive.
The response from the RCP underlined the views of the organisation on the key elements of the directive. “Whilst our views may be considered by some as protectionist, we are only guilty of protectionism when it comes to patient safety and not the nationality of the doctor”, said Dr Andrew Goddard Director of Workforce Unit, Royal College of Physicians.
Tom Keighley, Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing UK also underlined that the “free movement of healthcare professionals must be balanced with effective safeguards to protect patients and regulators must be able to fulfil their statutory function to protect the public.’
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