London, July 12 (IANS) Foreign nurses in Britain will no longer need to sit for rigorous competence exams before treating patients, as European Union (EU) rules demand that the tests be axed, a media report said Monday.
Nurses from EU will no longer be required to even show they have looked after patients in the past three years, the Daily Mail reported on its website. However, the test will still apply to non-EU applicants.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council will stop administering the tests in the autumn after being told it could be sued by the European Commission for breaking EU law on ‘freedom of movement’ for workers from the continent.
Under the current system, nurses from the EU states wanting to work in hospitals, surgeries or care homes in Britain have to prove their clinical skills are up to standard.
In the past five years, more than 40,000 nurses from the EU – including former Soviet Bloc countries such as Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia – applied to work in Britain. But just 270 completed the course, deterred by its cost and difficulty.
Now the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which regulates nurses, has been forced to scrap both requirements because they are deemed to be ‘discriminatory’ towards workers from EU member-states.
Critics say the change will ‘almost certainly’ lead to lives being lost.
