Current Events International Health Care Systems

Doctors with Borders

Although I believe that a lot of the pundits claims of economic downturns due to the Brexit are overblown, there are clearly many uncertainties to resolve.  The Telegraph reports on how Brexit will affect doctors working in the UK.

As a result of the country’s decision to leave the EU, health regulators may have to change the way information about medics is shared across European borders when concerns are raised about doctors or nurses.

At present, there are European directives on sharing disciplinary records and fitness to practise hearings.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the General Medical Council, said: “Withdrawing from Europe will have implications for the way that we regulate doctors but we understand that the vote to leave the EU will have no impact on the registration status of any doctor already on the register.

“We will now explore how doctors from the EU will be granted access to the UK medical register and how any concerns about those doctors will be shared between us and other countries.

“We will also seek to understand the implications for UK doctors wishing to work in the EU once the UK is no longer a member state.”

Will the cost of health care rise in the UK due to an inability to hire less expensive foreign physicians and health workers. Perhaps, but my guess is that the effect is fairly modest, especially after immigration rules within the UK have been ironed out.

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