Ten of the UK's health and social care regulators have joined forces to express their concerns about a new draft EU directive.

Under the current proposals, healthcare professionals from any EU country would be allowed to work for up to four months per year, every year, in the UK, without being registered with a UK regulator.

In practice this means that if there was a problem with the care a person received, the UK regulators would have no powers to take action against the individual.

Forum Response: General Medical Council

Professor Sir Graeme Catto, president of the General Medical Council, told ePolitix.com: "If this directive was implemented in its current form, patient safety could be at risk from day one. As regulators we have a legal duty to ensure patient safety".

Forum Response: Nursing and Midwifery Council

Jonathan Asbridge, president of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, told ePolitix.com: "We need to have common standards for all healthcare professionals across the EU so that patients can be confident in those treating them.

"Patients must also be able to understand and communicate with the healthcare professional they are seeing, otherwise they will lose confidence in the professionals and the system. The directive does not address these important points."