The General Medical Council has been advising all the Medical employers in Scotland to check for the ability of the doctors from EU, of speaking good enough English, before hiring them. Niall Dickson, Chief Executive of the GMC said that checking the language skills and the medical competence of the doctors are equally important.

He said that the Government has not made any such law, so far, wherein the language skills of the doctors have to be tested. So he has been writing to all the medical service providers to consider the need. "That's the law as it stands. It is profoundly unsatisfactory and we would like to get it changed", he said.

He said that the quality of the healthcare services shall not suffer due to easy inflow of doctors.

Agreeing upon GMC's recommendations, Margaret Watt, Chairwoman of the Scotland Patients Association said that "It is totally unacceptable. It is vital that doctors are able to understand patients".

Similar issues were being raised in Scotland in 2006, when a German doctor's name was removed from the medical register. At that time, his English Speaking skills were being questioned. At present, more than 21,400 doctors have been listed on the GMC register that are from European Economic Area countries.