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Results of HPCB survey on the Portugal Agreement
1 March 2010
The results of a Healthcare Professionals Crossing Borders (HPCB) survey highlight progress on reactive information sharing and the implementation of the Certificate of Current Professional Status (CCPS) 1 across healthcare professional regulators in Europe.
The HPCB survey was held between August and November 2009 to assess the level of implementation of the Portugal Agreement. The HPCB Secretariat received 41 responses from 22 European countries. We would like to thank all those who took the time to respond.
Survey results indicate that 71% of respondents make registration lists for healthcare professionals available on their website and that these registers are searchable to some degree. The use of the CCPS as a template for reactive information sharing has proved successful, with respondents confirming its’ fitness for purpose. Competent authorities also expressed support for the Commission’s Internal Market Information (IMI) system, and made suggestions on how it could be improved to better enable information sharing between regulators.
The survey revealed that information sharing amongst European competent authorities remains patchy. Variations in regulatory approaches to dealing with information on suspensions, erasures, investigations and evidence received from other jurisdictions play a part in competent authorities’ ability to take disciplinary actions against healthcare professionals that have come to the attention of regulatory authorities elsewhere.
Please click here to view the full survey results. The findings also include a number of follow up activities identified by the HPCB Steering Group for the Crossing Borders initiative. We welcome any thoughts and comments on the activities proposed. Please email all feedback to hpcb@gmc-uk.org.
1. The European CCPS template is set out in the 2005 Edinburgh Agreement. It was developed by competent authorities and other stakeholders across Europe to increase consistency of information exchange between regulatory authorities, and provides a range of information about the current status of a healthcare professional who seeks registration with regulators in other countries. Please click here to view the CCPS template as set out in Agreement One of the Edinburgh Agreement.