Foreign Doctor's English.

Following the GMC's Lead

Ferret's tone on foreign doctors makes us all wonder what planet he is on these days. No doubt, he has progressed up the greasy pole of the medical hierarchy and is treating several illiterate English hospital attenders and even more foreign speakers of the English Language. His latest spate of complimentary messages regarding the General Medical Council shows us that he is indeed progressing quite well to sidle with the dark side. Ferret refers to several high profile deaths where foreigners have been involved. In reality there have been two high profile deaths by foreign doctors and several even higher profile deaths by English speaking doctors. In addition, there is no current study that links foreign doctors English ability to patient safety. Ferret has hand cramp each time Jane Barton is mentioned. A high profile case with hundreds of deaths that Ferret remains silent on. Perhaps it messes up his usual world view that foreign doctors = patient deaths.

If Ferret had done his homework, he would have found out about the following in a 1981 piece. The GMC has therefore been aware of this issue from 1981-2009.

"The Overseas Doctors Association is upset that non-English speaking EEC doctors should not have to pass an English exam to register. It is also upset that-even if they have full registration in Britain-overseas qualified doctors will not be allowed automatically to practise in EEC countries. Both of these objections are more symbolic than practical. Although EEC doctors will be able to register without taking a formal English test, those few who want to practise in Britain (449 have registered since 1977) will probably not be able to get a job in the NHS (nor in the English-speaking private sector, presumably) unless they have a good command of colloquial
English"

That is part of the problem with Ferret, he has this broad brush stroke approach to his blogging. As time has proceeded on, I have noticed that Ferret's ability to dissect issues properly is failing. Long gone are the days when he criticized the media for their stance, outlined their poor knowledge in medicine and their prejudiced view of doctors. Ferret is now victim of the media he once criticized. He is following the GMC's and the media's lead like a large fat puppy, wagging its tail and agreeing to the status quo without observing the agenda there. I believe Ferret is currently the first victim of the success on Doctors.net.uk - to suppress a doctors ability to think laterally or inquisitively. Ferret indeed is no longer the blogger he used to be. His demise is indeed a sad loss to the usually vibrant blogsphere. For Ferret's sake, it is important to make him understand that the GMC are currently fighting for their reputation and are capitalizing on the David Gray story. Niall Dickson is former journalist. Journalists never change their spots. It is now politically advantageous to the GMC to jump on the foreign doctors bashing bandwagon. The fact is changes could have been made in 1981. The GMC failed to do so. Even if they had done, it would not have prevented the death of David Gray.

This is what he says on his recent blog

"Essentially European law means that the GMC cannot test EU doctors competence or ability to speak English, despite the fact that many have a rather limited command of English and that some of their medical degrees are not the most rigorous of "qualificiations"

Firstly, it would be nice if Ferret could spell "qualifications". When criticizing others with that kind of tone, it is always worth using blogger's spell checker before ex foreigners like me point it out with my grubby finger.

Secondly, his sentence is not based on any kind of research or evidence in science. Ferret just thinks" many have a rather limited command of English". In reality, we have no idea what the standard of English is like in foreign doctors.

Shame Ferret cannot spell. I mean it is really rather embarrassing when you go through his entire blog spotting the typos. Then perhaps he wants to use the "in haste" defense developed by the Guardian. Of course, Ferret won't like my tone but then I don't like his so we are equal.