§ Ms HarmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health from which countries outside the EU doctors are permitted to engage in exchange educational visits with general practices in the United Kingdom. [22386]
§ Mr. MaloneThere is no restriction based on country of origin on doctors who wish to undertake either educational visits or exchange arrangements with general practices in the United Kingdom.
§ Ms HarmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the joint committee on post-graduate training for general practice's proposals for the Department of Health to amend the 1994 regulations regarding exchange doctors to permit educational visits to general practices in the United Kingdom by general practitioners from outside the European Union member states. [22385]
§ Mr. MaloneSince January 1995, all doctors—whether from outside the European Economic Area or not—who enter general practice in the United Kingdom for the first time must meet a single standard for entry. This is the case whether the doctor is an educational visitor or part of an exchange agreement. Nothing in the regulations as they now stand prevents doctors who reach this standard taking part in exchanges or educational visits. The proposals put forward by the joint committee on postgraduate training for general practice to amend the relevant regulations would allow doctors who could not reach this standard to practise in the UK. Such a step would not be in the interests of national health service patients.