Post Brexit GMC wants better EU data to stop doctors banned abroad working in the UK

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By Erin Dean

The General Medical Council has warned some overseas regulators do not routinely share robust information about doctors who are unfit to practise – a problem significantly worse after Brexit – leaving gaps in the system that have allowed banned medics to work in the UK.

It emerged that 22 doctors who had been struck off abroad were subsequently cleared to treat NHS patients, an investigation published in October revealed.

Five of those doctors are now suspended or have lost their jobs in the UK.

The probe, led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project in partnership with a Norwegian newspaper and the Times, exposed significant weaknesses in international information-sharing systems designed to flag doctors with disciplinary histories.

The regulator helped set up the EU’s fitness-to-practise information-sharing system in 2013, but is no longer able to access it post-Brexit.

The UK regulator has said it is striving to improve international communication between countries on doctors who have lost their licence to practise, including writing to the EU asking for data to be shared.