The next government must "as a matter of extreme urgency" demand changes to a 2005 EU directive governing the free movement of labour in an effort to prevent more deaths at the hands of incompetent foreign GPs, senior MPs said today.

New ministers should also promise to change UK laws which "goldplated" European rules and prevented medical regulators giving language tests to European doctors, according to a critical report on out-of-hours services by the Commons health select committee.

The report criticised NHS bodies for failing to use other vetting powers, noting that no disciplinary action had been taken against an NHS body that did not check the English language skills of Daniel Ubani, a German doctor who unlawfully killed a patient on his first shift in Britain.

The challenge to begin changing the structure for vetting EU doctors before a long-planned Brussels review in 2012 could mean an early clash with EU partners for the new administration.

At present, EU doctors can join the British General Medical Council (GMC) register without undergoing the language and competence tests faced by other doctors from abroad, as long as their own countries' regulators vouch for their credentials.

The Department of Health in England has already ordered that the NHS implement properly its existing system for safeguarding patients following a series of Guardian revelations and a damning coroner's verdict on the case of 70-year-old David Gray, who was accidentally given a massive overdose of a painkilling drug by Ubani in 2008.

The GMC told the newspaper last August it could not guarantee the level of patient safety it wanted and in September, the Guardian reported how Ubani had failed in his first attempt to qualify for work in Britain and exploited the different ways local primary care trusts interpreted regulations on ensuring doctors were up to the job.

The current system, under which the GMC effectively says doctors are fit to practise and local primary care trusts (PCTs) ensure they are suitable for the individual job for which they are contracted directly or via private companies, has already been condemned in a government-commissioned review. But today's report by the health select committee wants more action.

Although Ubani's disastrous first shift was in Cambridgeshire, he won his ticket to work in Britain by persuading Cornwall and Isles of Scilly primary care trust to add him to its performers' list without language checks. No disciplinary action has been taken within the trust nor by the NHS against the trust.

He had withdrawn an application to join a performers list run by the NHS in Leeds when he failed to score sufficient marks in an English test and did not provide guarantees he would only work locally.

Kevin Barron, the health committee chair, said: "It is tragic that it takes the death of a patient to expose the serious failings now evident in the current system for checking language and competence skills of overseas doctors.

"Everything possible must be done as soon as possible to ensure another life is not lost in this way."

Stuart Gray, a GP and one of David Gray's four sons, said: "When we brought this up with ministers last week, although they said the PCT is legally responsible, they did not have an answer about what do when PCTs breached the law.

"They are looking to make NHS managers personally legally liable but again could not state what 'punishment' would be meted out."

Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs and co-author of the government-commissioned review, supported "the need for urgent action to ensure PCTs and providers of care are working to current regulations".

He added: "The evidence was many were not. We have to ensure PCTs do what they are meant to do. The evidence was that quality assurance of PCTs by strategic health authorities was not very good either."

He said there should be a wider look at emergency care, including A&E services, out-of-hours medical provision and GP services.

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the GMC, said: "Doctors from outside the UK make a significant contribution to healthcare in this country but patient safety must always take priority over the free movement of labour."

A Department of Health spokesman said: "PCTs were recently reminded that they should have undertaken all the checks set out in the Performers Lists Regulations to ensure that doctors on their lists have the necessary skills and are suitable to perform primary medical services. A review of the Perfomers List is being undertaken and as part of this a national database of GPs is being looked at.

"The recent report into GP out of hours services by Dr David Colin-Thome and Professor Steve Field showed that there is variation in how PCTs commission and ensure delivery of out of hours services.

"All the recommendations made in the Colin-Thome/Field report were accepted in full. These will tighten existing controls and ensure that out of hours providers are employing competent clinicians, providing safe and effective care.

"By April 2012 every provider of GP healthcare, including out of hours providers, will need to be registered with the Care Quality Commission and will be subject to checks on compliance."