Lord Winston, Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College, London University, issued a warning in the House of Lords on 8 September 2011 that the inability  to communicate effectively of nurses from Eastern Europe is putting patients within the NHS at risk.  Lord Winston fears that the problem will worsen unless action is taken.

The Nursing and Midwidfery Council is unable to test nurses arriving from European countries on their langauge ability or clinical skills under EU law.  The law is intended to prevent restricion of the free movement of labour within the EU.

According to the GMC, doctors from the European Economic Area constitute about 10% of the doctors working in the UK.  The number of European nurses registering to work in the UK has doubled since tests on their language and clinical skills were abandoned. 

The House of Lords’ enquiry into free movement of medical workers within the EU was told that patients were being put at risk by medical staff who cannot speak English or understand  basic medical terminology such as ‘nil by mouth’. 

Lord Kakkar, a surgeon, agreed with Lord Winston’s views:  “It is not right for fellow practitioners to have to work with these individuals.  But most of all it is not right for the citizens of our country, who at times when they are unwell and becoming patients in our health care systems need to be absolutely certain that the practioners to whom they are exposed are  competent, meet the standards of medical practitioners in our country and therefore can with certainty provide the quality of care that citizens in our country deserve”.

From this it is difficult to see how any medical; or nurse practitioner can effectively treat a patient without the ability to communicate adequately to obtain an accurate history from the patient.

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