A foreign locum doctor with very poor English was spotted using Google to check medical terminology at work, an official report from the UK’s National Health Service revealed.
According to a Daily Mail report, the shocking incident was captured by auditors brought in to check on agency workers at Colchester General Hospital in Essex. The unnamed locum doctor was seen using the internet to look up medical terms. The report says during the spot checks it emerged another medic did not have a 'prescribed connection' – a validation required by doctors every five years.
Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust has pledged all staff should have sufficient grasp of English to work and now carries out additional tests. Dr Barbara Buckley, MD, said: “This doctor was observed looking up medical terminology and looking it up on the internet. We want doctors coming to the hospital, or agency nurses coming to the hospital to get language checks.”
The report says the trust has confirmed the doctor, who has not been named, no longer works at the hospital.
[link url="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4270608/Doctor-poor-English-spotted-GOOGLING-medical-terms.html"]Daily Mail report[/link]