Language test for foreign doctors

Health Minister Barbara Steffens calls for an extension of language checks

07/01/2014

More and more international physicians work here in hospitals, a total of about twice as many as almost ten years ago. In North Rhine-Westphalia hospitals, too, the number of physicians from abroad is rising, with just under 16 percent having a migration background here. In order to be able to work in a clinic in North Rhine-Westphalia, physicians from abroad must prove that they can speak and understand the German language in addition to equivalent specialist knowledge. Now NRW State Minister of Health Barbara Steffens (Greens) demands that in the future also the written expression be reviewed and also the tests be standardized nationwide.

16 percent of the clinicians in NRW come from abroad
Doctors in hospitals increasingly come from abroad, since 2005, the number has almost doubled. There is also a trend in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), with around 6,000 of the approximately 37,500 clinicians (16%) coming from another country. So far, foreign doctors who want to work in NRW have been tested in advance for their specialist knowledge, but also for listening comprehension and language proficiency. However, this will now be extended at the direction of the State Minister of Health Barbara Steffens (Greens), in the future also the written expression of the doctors should be checked: „Doctors not only need to speak the same language as their patients, they also need to be able to formulate doctor's letters and health certificates correctly. "The minister's statement was passed on to the North Rhine-Westphalian medical and dental associations. because according to the information provided by the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia, it is responsible for the continuing medical education and training of the medical profession in accordance with the Health Care Act.

Nationwide alignment of test avoidance testing
In addition to the extension of the review, Barbara Steffens also called for a nationwide alignment of the tests at North Rhine-Westphalian level, a so-called „tourist examination“ prevent and protect patients from medical professionals who would not meet professional standards in this country: „Foreign doctors with a weak knowledge of German are not allowed to go to other federal states and receive their approbation there“, said the minister. For this reason, in June 2013, the Conference of Ministers of Health had set up a working group to work out benchmarks for uniform language tests by the spring.

Tests to demonstrate equivalent expertise unified since 1 January
According to the information provided by the state government, there have also been uniform national requirements for carrying out examinations to prove equivalent specialist knowledge since 1 January 2014. Through a legal ordinance, the Federal Ministry of Health has stipulated here that physicians from countries outside the European Union must prove their expertise in an oral exam similar to their peers trained in Germany. The test is comparable to the German state examination, „a long overdue step to standardize the access to the profession for doctors in Germany“, Minister Steffens continued. (No)