WRITTEN QUESTION E-0074/03

by Erik Meijer (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(23 January 2003)

Subject: Lack of a European register of medical errors committed by people who successively work in different states

1. Has the Commission heard that one of the findings of the assessment of five years' experience of the Dutch Individual Health Care Professions Act, which is intended to provide patients with information about the expertise and qualifications of health professionals, is that people who have been punished abroad for making professional errors can exercise their profession without any restriction in the Netherlands because the disciplinary measures taken in their countries of origin are not recorded in the public register of medical practitioners provided for by the Individual Health Care Professions Act, which records any disciplinary measures imposed by the Dutch Ministry of Health?

2. Does the Commission share the fear expressed by the research bureau ZonMW, which performed the assessment, that, particularly after enlargement, freedom of establishment in the field of health care within the EU will result in more foreign medical practitioners coming to the present EU Member States and that additional measures are required to ensure that patients can ascertain whether they are also adequately protected against inexpert service provision by these practitioners?

3. Does the Commission have any information about similar experiences in Member States other than the Netherlands where medical errors can be committed because people are working whose past record in the medical profession remains unknown?

4. Are there wide variations in the ways in which medical errors and punishments for them are recorded in the various present and future EU Member States? Are there Member States where no register is kept or where the public do not yet have access to registers of errors? Will there be any change in this respect in the near future?

5. What view does the Commission take of the researchers' proposal that a European information system should be set up by means of which the qualifications of medical practitioners who have previously worked in another Member State and/or been trained there can easily be checked? Will the Commission take measures to bring this about?

Source: De Volkskrant (Dutch newspaper), 21 and 23 December 2002.

Answer given by Mr Bolkestein on behalf of the Commission

(25 February 2003)

1. Member States are competent for legal provisions as to good character or good repute including provisions for disciplinary action in respect of serious professional misconduct or conviction of criminal offences. The directives on professional recognition covering medical professions and professions allied to medicine allow host Member States to require proof of good repute and related information from the home Member State, with due respect for confidentiality and data protection rules. Host Member States can insist on obtaining this information before granting recognition.

2. Community law, including the above-mentioned obligation, will be applied in all new Member States.

3. The Commission organises regular meetings of the Committee of Senior Officials on Public Health and the Group of General System Co-ordinators for the purposes of the exchange of information and discussion of issues relevant to free movement. The Commission does not dispose of any specific information of the kind referred to.

4. The Commission is generally aware of varying national practices. Registers or records of different kinds tend to exist in all Member States. The way in which access of the public is allowed to all or part of such registers or records is organised within the Member States in line with Community legislation on data protection. The Commission is currently working on developing an informatic system to reinforce the current network of national authorities to facilitate, inter alia, the on-line exchange of the necessary information. The recent proposal for a Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications(1) also seeks to reinforce the role of national contact points.

5. The issue of disciplinary measures is covered by the proposal for a Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications. This proposal requires communication of information on such measures when health professionals intend to establish themselves in another Member State. Annex VII of the proposed Directive refers to the documents which may be required by the host Member State when deciding on the recognition of the relevant professional qualifications. In particular, evidence may be required to be provided concerning the absence of serious professional misconduct or criminal offences which might have led to suspension or prohibition of the pursuit of the relevant profession in the Member State of origin. Article 46(2) reinforces the system for the cases in which there is more than one Member State of origin. Any measure taken to ensure exchange of information on disciplinary has to respect the existing Community principles on data protection.

(1) OJ C 181 E, 30.7.2002.