Out-of-hours care must be reformed says Lamb

9.00.00am GMT Sat 6th Feb 2010

Healthcare

Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary, Norman Lamb has highlighted his set of proposals aimed at reforming out-of-hours care, put forward in conjunction with the sons of David Gray who was tragically killed by an out-of-hours doctor.

The proposals include:

A national language and competence test for every doctor wishing to work in the UK

Making sure that a suspension in one country is effective everywhere across the European Economic Area (EEA)

Creating a criminal offence for a PCT to allow a doctor to operate without ensuring compliance with regulations

Commenting, Norman Lamb said "The tragic death of David Gray has raised grave concerns about the safety of out-of-hours care in this country. The safeguards to stop dangerous doctors from overseas from practising here are completely inadequate. Patients' lives are being put at risk because standards across Europe are not uniformly good and foreign doctors can practice in the NHS without a test of competence and language. Ministers have known for some time that the safeguards in place are not adequate but they have failed to act."