1 Introduction
1. In 2004 new arrangements for out-of-hours general
practice were introduced as part of a new General Practitioner
(GP) contract with the aim of addressing inadequate standards
and difficulties in retaining doctors in general practice. Many
consider the new system an improvement on its predecessor, but
it has some serious weaknesses, in particular in the use of EEA[1]
doctors and the failure to check their language skills and clinical
competence, which led to killing of a patient, Mr Gray, by Dr
Ubani, a German locum. As a result of the failings this incident
revealed we decided to undertake a short inquiry. We took oral
evidence from representatives of Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and
Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs), a medical director of a GP
out-of-hours service, the Chief Executive of the General Medical
Council (GMC) and his deputy, the Chairman of the Council of the
Royal College of GPs, and the Minister of State at the Department
of Health, Mike O'Brien MP. We received 7 memoranda.
1 In this report we use "EEA doctors" as
a shorthand to cover doctors from the EEA (EU countries plus Iceland,
Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) as well as other doctors
with EC rights, excluding UK nationals, who graduated at EEA or
Swiss medical schools. Back
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