ALL FOREIGN doctors should be subject to an exam before being allowed to work in Britain, the head of the medical regulator has said.

Prof Terence Stephenson, the chairman of the General Medical Council (GMC), said the UK should consider introducing one standard test for all medics instead of accepting thousands of foreign doctors “on trust”.

Such an exam would also be employed in all British medical schools, instead of allowing them to “mark their own homework”, he said.

In his first interview since being appointed to lead the watchdog in September of last year, he said regulators needed to explore new rules to improve safety and offer reassurance to the public.

Currently, the only standard exam is for doctors who have trained in countries outside Europe, and Prof Stephenson said it was not tough enough.

Medics who train within the European Union can work here without any checks.

Since 2010, the number who have done so has risen by 29 per cent – more than twice the rise in doctors registering who were trained in this country.

There are no UK tests on EU doctors’ medical skills, or qualifications, and language is only tested if watchdogs have specific grounds for concern.

Meanwhile, universities in the UK set their own exams, with 31 sets of medical finals.

The head of the GMC suggested that British universities should not be allowed to set their own standards, given that they might be reluctant to fail students, who had racked up an average debt of £54,000.

Prof Stephenson said: “We are committed to exploring the idea of a UK licensing exam – a common exam that every doctor practising in this country would take.”

Such a move would aim to prevent substandard medical graduates working in Britain, regardless of where they may have trained.

“I think for the public the biggest concern probably is around EU doctors,” he said.

“We could reassure them that for doctors outside the EU they have a test. It’s within the EU that it’s hard to reassure the public.”

He said the current system meant regulators were forced to “take on trust, someone who comes here from Bulgaria, from a medical school we don’t know” without knowing the worth of the qualifications.

“That’s part of being in the EU club, we have to play by EU rules,” he said, indicating that changes to the system would require legislation.

He said the current exams for doctors from outside Europe, set by the Professional Linguistics Board (PLAB) did not set a sufficiently high bar.

“I am committed to raising the standard of the PLAB exam to ensure all international medical graduates are safe to practise in the UK,” he said.

Last year, research found that half of international doctors taking the tests would not be able to practise in Britain if they had to meet the standards of those trained here.

Prof Stephenson said the GMC did not know the standards of EU medical schools, making it “very hard” to provide assurances to the public.

Prof Stephenson said he was “positioning the GMC very firmly as a patient safety organisation”.

“It is there to protect the public, not to protect doctors,” he said.