Europe increases scrutiny of medical professionals after international “Malpractice” probe
02.10.2025 15:10
In response to an investigation by OCCRP and partners, Norway’s health minister proposed creating a new system to prevent doctors from moving across borders to practice after being barred in other countries.
Top health authorities in Europe have called for urgent changes to protect patients after an investigation by dozens of international media, which exposed how doctors continue practicing even after committing offenses like sexual assault and botched surgeries.
Regulators in several European countries have also confirmed they are investigating individual physicians.
Reporters identified more than 100 doctors across Europe and elsewhere who have had their licenses revoked in at least one jurisdiction, but are currently licensed in another. The investigation was led by OCCRP, Norway’s VG, and The Times of London, and involved media partners in dozens of countries.
“This is serious. People should be able to be completely confident in those who provide healthcare in Norway,” Jan Christian Vestre, Norway’s Minister of Health and Care Services, said today.
Norway has re-opened investigations into 12 doctors after receiving questions from reporters. The Norwegian Board of Health Supervision had previously looked into the doctors, but the handling of the cases stopped due to errors, officials told VG.
Among those cases is a pediatrician who told parents their children might have cancer so they would spend money on expensive tests provided by his company, according to U.K. documents obtained by reporters.
“It is also important to have long-term measures to prevent this from happening again,” said Vestre. “Now it is our responsibility and our task to take action that improves the systems in Norway and internationally.”
He told VG that Norway wanted to “take the initiative towards Nordic and European countries on joint measures that we can initiate to better safeguard patient safety across national borders.”
This could include a joint doctor authorization register for the European Union and European Economic Area and increased transparency about authorizations and license revocations in all countries, he said.
The months-long “Bad Practice” investigation uncovered systemic flaws that allow banned doctors to keep working, including an alert system for the European Union and European Economic Area that is barely or never used by some countries.
"It is very worrying to discover that, although we have a European alert mechanism for serious cases in the healthcare system, it is full of loopholes and is used inconsistently,” Nicolae Ștefănuță, vice president of EU Parliament, told Public Record in Romania.
“I call on Member States to treat these alerts with the utmost responsibility and not to let serious cases go unpunished,” he added.
The U.K.’s Health and Social Safety Secretary, Wes Streeting, he has ordered “urgent clarification” from the country’s General Medical Council about the vetting processes for international doctors, after The Times identified 22 doctors who have been subject to discipline or restrictions overseas with no record of it showing on their licenses.
“The public rightly expects that any doctor practising in this country meets the highest standards of professional conduct,” Streeting told The Times.
After questions from journalists, regulators in Germany, Spain and Cyprus also confirmed that they had launched probes into banned doctors working in their jurisdictions.
In Germany, the Düsseldorf district government confirmed it has started an investigation into a doctor who lost his license in Switzerland following a conviction for sexually assaulting an 18-year-old female patient.
Düsseldorf authorities told Paper Trail Media that they had not been notified by Swiss or German authorities about the revocation of the doctor’s license.
The Cyprus Medical Council told CIReN that it is investigating a doctor who had his license revoked in Sweden in 2021 after the National Board of Health and Welfare found his medical knowledge inadequate. The doctor had inappropriately administered medication, according to Swedish authorities, with one patient suffering a double lung collapse.
Meanwhile, Spain’s Alicante Medical Association confirmed to infoLibre that they are reviewing the license of a cosmetic surgeon who a U.K. medical tribunal found had inserted breast implants against the express wishes of his patient. British authorities revoked his license in 2020.
