GOsC welcomes Lords report on EU mobility

The General Osteopathic Council welcomes today’s publication of a House of Lords Select Committee report, calling for a change to the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive, which governs the mobility of healthcare professionals within the EU.

GOsC Chief Executive Tim Walker said: “Increased mobility of health professionals is welcome, as long as appropriate measures exist in tandem to ensure public protection.”

“Since the Directive came into force in 2007, we have raised our concerns about the need for greater patient protection through proper regulation and high standards of treatment. This is particularly important for a profession, like osteopathy, which is not widely regulated across Europe and made up predominantly of self-employed practitioners.”

Supporting the GOsC’s own concerns, the Select Committee recommends that:

Regulatory bodies should be allowed to test the language skills of ALL non-UK applicants. An alert mechanism should be implemented so that authorities can share fitness to practise information and warn each other about practitioners who have been subject to disciplinary proceedings.

“We hope these concerns will be reflected in a revised Directive, currently being considered by the European Commission,” commented Tim Walker.

The House of Lords Social Policies and Consumer Protection EU Sub-Committee report follows an inquiry held earlier this year into the Mobility of Healthcare Professionals in the EU. During their inquiry the Lords received evidence from a number of parties, including the GOsC.

ENDS

For further information contact:
The GOsC Press Office
Tel: 020 7357 6655 x245
Email: pressoffice@osteopathy.org.uk 

Notes to Editors

The General Osteopathic Council (GOsC) has a statutory duty to regulate the practice of osteopathy in the UK. Osteopaths must be registered with the GOsC in order to practise in the UK. We work with the public and the profession to promote patient safety by:

• registering qualified professionals
• setting, maintaining and developing standards of osteopathic practice and conduct
• assuring the quality of osteopathic education
• ensuring continuing professional development; helping patients with concerns or complaints about an osteopath.

The statutory Register of Osteopaths provides a geographical index of all practising osteopaths, and is available to the general public and to healthcare providers online at: www.osteopathy.org.uk/register-search/

Osteopathy is statutorily regulated in only four EU Member States (Finland, France, Malta and the UK), plus Iceland and Switzerland. For this reason, the GOsC initiated the Forum for Osteopathic Regulation in Europe (www.forewards.eu) which brings together national Registers and Competent Authorities for osteopathy across Europe to enhance the protection of patients in Europe by promoting wider recognition and regulation of osteopaths and high standards of osteopathic treatment. FORE is now working with the European Federation of Osteopaths (www.efo.eu) and the European Committee for Standardisation (www.cen.eu) to formalise standards of osteopathic education, training and practice across Europe.