Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2022
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
    • COVID-19 Articles
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
    • Open access
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2022
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
News

Europe contemplates stricter language proficiency testing of doctors

Tiago Villanueva
CMAJ April 05, 2011 183 (6) E321-E322; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-3821
Tiago Villanueva
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

European nations may be creeping toward the imposition of tougher language proficiency requirements for doctors who’d like to hang up a shingle anywhere but their homeland.

Patient and employer complaints about foreign doctors who lack proficiency in a country’s official language are prompting a reconsideration of language requirements for doctors seeking to practise within the European Economic Area, which includes all 27 European Union member states, along with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.

The European Commission is now conducting consultations on revisions to the existing Professional Qualifications Directive and plans to issue an updated version in 2012.

The exercise is broadly aimed at determining whether Europe-wide credentialing and harmonized training is necessary to allow for the free movement of professionals. Among measures under consideration are the creation of a “European professional card” and common curricula, complete with minimum training requirements (http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/consultations/docs/2011/professional_qualifications/consultation_paper_en.pdf).

The issue of language skills has arisen strictly in the context of health care, the consultation paper adds. “Language requirements should be justified and proportionate, in view of the activity that the professional wishes to carry out. Thus, they may vary according to the activities to be exercised, in line with the proportionality principle. Professionals should be able to demonstrate their linguistic skills by any means (attendance of language training, stay in a country where the language is used, etc.). On the other hand, the Directive should not be construed as imposing a blanket ban on language testing. It does allow for language testing in exceptional and justified cases.”

Figure

Using sign language or simply muddling through using a patient’s mother tongue will no longer be acceptable in Europe under proposed reforms.

Image courtesy of © 2011 Jupiterimages Corp.

But article 53 of the directive is interpreted differently across Europe, according to regulatory reports submitted to the European Commission (http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/qualifications/evaluation_en.htm#additional_experience_12_2010).

Some regulators require a language assessment test post-registration (Italy). Some subject doctors to the scrutiny of a panel (Austria), or interviews conducted by the regulator (Cyprus), while others require that doctors demonstrate that they’re able to discuss a video recording with a regulatory panel (Portugal).

Some nations leave it to employers to gauge language proficiency (Ireland, Malta, Belgium, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), while others require a test within the first six months of employment (some regions of Denmark).

Poland merely requires that doctors declare in writing that their level of Polish is up to speed, while Luxembourg doesn’t require language assessments unless doubts are raised about a doctor’s linguistic skills. Doctors in France who do not have certified proof of linguistic competency in French face language verification from the medical inspector of the department of public health, while those in the Czech Republic may face written and oral tests. Germany leaves the matter entirely in the hands of local states.

Fernando Rivas, national officer for postgraduate training for the Spanish Medical Chamber, says compulsory membership in provincial medical colleges may create a situation in which language proficiency becomes a matter easily enforced by the national chamber.

The United Kingdom’s General Medical Council (GMC), meanwhile, does not conduct language assessment because its regulatory framework prohibits it.

“The GMC supports the free movement of doctors in the European Economic Area but the legal framework does not adequately protect patients. We are currently unable to assess the language and clinical skills of these doctors at registration, as we do with other doctors who qualified outside the UK, so cannot be sure that doctors on the register have the necessary language skills to practise medicine safely,” Niall Dickson, chief executive of the council, writes in an email.

The council, along 25 other European medical regulators who comprise a group called Informal Network [of] Competent Authorities for Doctors, adopted a joint statement in 2010 calling on the European Commission to “examine the language provisions in the Directive to address the concerns of competent authorities in relation to language proficiency of migrant doctors in the interest of patient safety” (www.gmc-uk.org/Joint_Berlin_statement_28_Oct_2010_37914074.pdf).

It’s an indicator of a desire for tighter language requirements, Dr. Bernardo Bollen Pinto, president of the Permanent Working Group of European Junior Doctors, writes in an email. “Some regulatory bodies are expressing concerns regarding the language skills of migrating doctors and might push in the direction of mandatory language testing. This issue is particularly evident in the UK, where recent cases of alleged malpractice with disastrous results by foreign doctors came out in the media. Communication problems between doctor and patient were pointed out as the cause of the problem.”

PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Medical Association Journal: 183 (6)
CMAJ
Vol. 183, Issue 6
5 Apr 2011
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Europe contemplates stricter language proficiency testing of doctors
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Europe contemplates stricter language proficiency testing of doctors
Tiago Villanueva
CMAJ Apr 2011, 183 (6) E321-E322; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3821

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Europe contemplates stricter language proficiency testing of doctors
Tiago Villanueva
CMAJ Apr 2011, 183 (6) E321-E322; DOI: 10.1503/cmaj.109-3821
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Monkeypox: tracking the global health emergency
  • Making sense of monkeypox death rates
  • Providing abortions to Americans could land Canadian doctors in legal trouble — without CMPA assistance
Show more News

Similar Articles

Collections

  • Topics
    • Global health
    • Humanitarian medicine

 

View Latest Classified Ads

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • CPD credits
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Advisory Panels
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions
  • Accessibiity
  • CMA Civility Standards
CMAJ Group

Copyright 2022, CMA Impact Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of these resources in an accessible format, please contact us at CMAJ Group, 500-1410 Blair Towers Place, Ottawa ON, K1J 9B9; p: 1-888-855-2555; e: cmajgroup@cmaj.ca

Powered by HighWire