Mutual recognition of specialist medical training

12.10.2015

Question for written answer E-013741-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Christel Schaldemose (S&D)

Skadet af læger (injured by doctors), a documentary broadcast on Danish television station DR2 on 6 October 2015, revealed malpractice by a Lithuanian doctor involving two patients on the same day. In both cases, mistakes were made during surgery, resulting in the patients’ ureters being sewn shut. It also emerged that the doctor had completed 7 years of training, whereas in Denmark gynaecologists are required to complete 12 years of training.

Under Directive 2005/36/EC, in the Member States there must be mutual recognition of numerous training courses and qualifications obtained in other Member States, including specialist medical training. The duration of that training cannot be less than the duration specified in Annex V, point 5.1.3. For gynaecologists that means four years of specialist medical training in addition to six years of basic training.

Article 23(4) of the directive, however, includes a number of exceptions applying to qualifications issued by the former Soviet Union (which in Lithuania’s case means those obtained before 11 March 1990) and which the Lithuanian authorities have attested to be equivalent to current qualifications.

This raises a number of very important questions:

Can Member States require supervision (referred to in the directive as an ‘adaptation period’) or an aptitude test for doctors to whom the specific transitional arrangements set out in Article 23(4) apply?

What other possibilities do Member States have to impose restrictions on and/or monitor doctors to whom the directive applies where there is any doubt over their aptitude and/or qualifications?