Graduate Teaching Assistantship

Balancing national and supra-national requirements: the regulation of the medical profession in Europe

There is growing concern about the increasing volume of cross-border care being provided in Europe. This includes situations where physicians move temporarily to provide care in another member state (as in the recent case of a German physician found to have killed a British patient with an overdose of morphine) and the provision of remote services (for example Greek radiologists reading British x-rays). Specifically, there are concerns that the standards of care deemed acceptable in one country may differ from those in another. However, these concerns are based almost entirely on anecdotes, with very little information on the scale and nature of any problem. The project is based within a major new project, starting in May 2010, which is examining in detail the arrangements for cross-border care. This element will involve a critical assessment of systems for quality assurance in EU countries (building on a recent book that described these arrangements published by LSHTM staff), quantification of the scale and nature of movement (including case studies of selected problems that have arisen), and the use of scenario analysis with national regulatory agencies to understand how the performance of health professionals is conceptualised and assessed in different jurisdictions (e.g. would a regulator view as a professional disciplinary offence a doctor shouting abuse at a police officer at a football match while off duty (as in the UK) or as a matter lying within the purely personal sphere of activity?). This will be undertaken in association with the GMC and its network of European regulators.

This project will be based in the Health Services Research Unit, in the Department of Public Health & Policy.

Graduate Teaching Assistantships