Foreign doctors must speak English...

One of the reasons, and a subsidiary one, why we changed our aunt's care home was because all the staff were recently arrived Filipinas, all of a similar age. These ladies were excellent nurses and spoke excellent English but I was concerned that she was in a home where the culture of the staff was completely different to that of the residents, they wouldn't know the names of old shops, television programmes or home celebrations or understand the background and personal history of residents, essential when the residents have dementia. However the main reason for the move was cost. She had been an emergency admission after catastrophe struck at home and it was the nearest home with an immediately available bed.

She is now in a home where the staff are from a range of ages nationalities. Whatever reference she makes, usually some member of staff understands what she is talking about. The home has a large library of DVDs of programmes like Morecambe and Wise and staff will sit and watch with residents and reminisce about the resident's past, which was often there childhood.

My niece worked in the Costa del Sol as a summer job once. She was hoping to practice her Spanish Came back convinced that the whole Spanish nation were losing their native language.
In Australia as well my son gets asked if he left the UK "because of the immigrants".

granjura I know when I have been in certain places in Spain popular with expats and seen rows of English 'pubs' & clubs advertising trad full English breakfasts/fish & chips etc etc I suspect these are the haunts of people who have left England because 'the immigrants' have 'taken over' their area!

absent, I am not upset about being ignored- just find it funny. Just like the expats who decide to leave the UK because they are fed up with the immigrants who do not learn the language and live parallel lives - and then do just that as expats - but feel it is ok because they are Anglo-Saxons and consider the A/S culture and language to be the world 'norm'.

granjura I, for one, was not ignoring what you said about British and American doctors, but I registered your point and didn't feel I had anything to add. I suppose as English is such a widely spoken language, combined with the nation's insular attitude, it's a tiresome inevitability. However, I think it will change as the global power base gradually shifts both east and south.

'Why can't the English teach their children how to speak?' (My Fair Lady)

It is funny to be ignored again - I totally agree that doctors and 'key' staff should speak the local language. But it is weird that anglo-saxons often think that it is perfectly normal for everyone to speak English, abroad, be they doctors, dentists, plumbers and shop-keepers

I did teach with a swedish teacher once in the East End of London. She was amazed that the children " don't speak English".

I think dialect, accent,slang must be a problem for some foreign health staff. But if they do not speak English there are problems, as a patient often has to ask some complex questions about treatment.

kitty

Movedalot I think it is a huge generalisation to say you understand allMidlands lingo. I sat on a Youth Offender Panel once when a teenager spoke in broad 'Shepshed' and I defy anyone to understand that!

perfectly legal pogs as long as the job specification says something like:
Must have excellent spoken English and good communication skills.

Quite simple. About time!!! (I they are 'allowed' to)..

Watch this space for some body or another to say it will not be legal.

And indeed those who work with the under 5s

I'd quite like the carers in Mum's home to be comprehensible both for me and, more importantly, for her.

jane it may be their responsibility, but I would be surprised if they initial screening is not outsourced, including the language testing. This is what recruitment agencies do to justify their huge fees. (I am talking about locum posts here, suspect permanent doctor posts may be handled directly)
In other walks of life e.g. supply teaching agencies, the agency would do all the screening, interviews, CRB, etc and then forward copies of paperwork like CRB to the school.
If you put something like: "medical staff recruitment agencies" into google you will get loads, like this:
www.yourworldhealthcare.co.uk/job_list.php

Amazing how many British/American doctors expect to be able to practise in non Anglo-Saxon speaking English only though (:, especially in Switzerland where they get high salaries.

Speaking comprehensible English is vital in a doctor practising here. Failing to understand what is said could have serious consequences. Every non-UK doctor wishing to work here should have to pass a stringent language test.

Agencies may well recruit doctors and dentists from abroad, but it's ultimately the responsibility if the employing NHS Trust to ensure that they have a registrable qualification, clinical references, enhanced CRB checks etc.

Sorry Jess I only know about agencies from the point of view of them supplying staff to me but I am sure you are right, agencies will do anything to place a candidate.

Jess . As you know I live in Fife although I come from 'darn sarf'. I've been here 32 years and can just about understand the Fife dialect : last week I was on a train with 5 friends - all Scots - making for Edinburgh frae Fife. The ticket inspector said something to us and they all looked perplexed - it was I, the only Englisher, who translated the fact that 'she would be back in 2 minutes as she had to go and open the doors for the next station'.

There used to be a brand of sticky tape in Australia called Durex. Back in the 60s we had to explain to our Australian secretary what product had that brand name in the UK, it was amazing how quickly she began to call it sellotape.

On language and doctors, the doctors need not just to understand standard English but also be able to cope with the accent of the area they go to work in. Similarly, even if their have no problems understanding English and speak it perfectly, some of them have very strong accents that are impenetrable to their patients.

There is also the issue, as I'm sure movealot can confirm, that many of these doctors are placed by employment agencies. So the agencies do all the screening and have a strong economic interest in "placing" their candidate before a/ another agency fills the post or b/ the agency incurs more costs.
There is an office that runs one of these not far from here. it is owned by James Khan I think.

When I was a dental student in my fourth year we acquired a new Professor of Prosthetic Dentistry, imported all the way from Melbourne, Australia.
It was the era of Monty Python's Flying Circus and the entire student body immediately referred to him as 'Bruce', both in and out of his hearing, talked about our pins and pincils, and of course the dintures we were busy making for our patients.
Sadly we couldn't understand a word of his lectures, but whether that was due to the accent or the content is debatable

Returning to the OP, EU qualified doctors at the moment don't have to take any test to prove their proficiency in English

I went to Fife once, and couldnt understand the shop assistants - or they me possibly.
And I was talking to someone from N Ireland once who was complaining they did not understand him on the fish stall in Swansea market. He was asking for:
hern.
I said if he wanted to request those fish he had to ask for he-rring with an emphasis on the first syllable.

When we moved to the north east I had no idea what oxters were or where the lisk is on the body. And hives children always seemed to have hives.