Bad doctors to be named in online register

The Swedish Board of Health and Welfare has written to the government to request permission to publish online the names, qualifications and current professional status of all certified workers in the healthcare sector.

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"This is already public information. Anybody can look it up, but we're making it more easily accessible," said Anders Printz, head of the board's regulatory division.

The list will not include any information about accusations of malpractice or official warnings from the Medical Responsibility Board. It will however contain names, certifications, and details on whether a medical professional has incurred any restrictions or been struck off the register.

"These are the most flagrant actions performed by the state. Everybody must of course have access to information that a particular person is not permitted to work -- as a doctor for instance -- if that is what they are doing," said Printz.

With patients likely to welcome the move, healthcare employers will also benefit from having readier access to the register. And in a bid to make the system more watertight, the board is urging Sweden and the other Nordic countries to coordinate their registers so employers can see if an applicant has been subject to restrictions in any of the other countries.

A pan-Nordic register could, for example, have helped curtail the career of Danish doctor Johanne Krogh. The surgeon had her medical licence revoked in her native Denmark before moving to Norway, where she was implicated in 29 malpractice cases.

The surgeon, referred to by the Oslo media as the "worst doctor in Norway," later moved to Sweden and has now been suspended from her job at Hudiksvall hospital pending the results of an investigation by the Swedish health board.