FEWER THAN one in six of the junior doctors recruited by the Health Service Executive from India and Pakistan to alleviate staff shortages have sought entry to the Irish medical register to date.
Doctors must be on the register before they can work in the Republic.
Hospitals across the State face a shortage of junior doctors from July 11th when posts are rotated as part of doctors’ training.
The Irish Association for Emergency Medicine, which represents consultants working in emergency departments, estimated last week that only five of the 32 hospital emergency departments would have sufficient junior doctors to operate a normal level of service in three weeks unless additional recruits could be found.
However, only 63 of the more than 400 doctors recruited by the HSE to deal with the problem have so far sought entry on to the Irish medical register.
The Medical Council also confirmed yesterday that three-quarters of those who had applied for registration had failed to submit all the documentation which was necessary to process their applications for registration.
Such documentation includes certificates showing their qualifications, a copy of their passport and a letter from the equivalent of the medical council in their home countries showing they are of good standing.
The failure by most of the applicants to submit all the required documentation is another headache for the HSE, which is anxious to fill hundreds of junior doctor posts which fall vacant next month.
The Government is separately planning to rush legislation through the Oireachtas which will reinstate a system of temporary registration for non-EU doctors to make it easier for them to work here.
It is proposed that under this system, doctors could be registered for about two years to do specific jobs only, but those seeking temporary registration will still have to sit a speciality-specific written exam and a clinical exam, which will only be held in Ireland.
Minister for Health James Reilly yesterday insisted that “extraordinary measures and actions” had been taken to address concerns around the registration of doctors and he believed “it will yield dividends”.
He disagreed with the claim of the Irish Association for Emergency Medicine that up to a third of emergency departments may have to close or curtail their hours from July 11th.
He could not predict “with absolute authority” but “we have been in touch with over 400 doctors outside the country who are prepared to travel with the new arrangements put in place.
“We will have an interview and an exam situation here to ensure that they are safe and it will be followed up by two weeks of assessment so that they will be even more thoroughly assessed than would normally be the case.”
He stressed that this was “not to reflect on them at all” but rather to “reassure the public that we are taking this very seriously and we are not going to sacrifice the quality of doctor or patient care for anything”.
Dr Reilly, who was at the launch of a survey yesterday of in-hospital treatment of patients, had conceded earlier this week that despite proposed changes, there were hospitals the HSE would have tremendous difficulty filling posts in. This gave rise to fears that some smaller hospitals may lose their round-the-clock emergency services.
While he did not name the hospitals likely to be affected, he said: “There may be some closures in some of the smaller hospitals which may not be just possible to make safe and we’re not going to have unsafe practice. That’s absolutely certain.”
In a statement, the Medical Council said: “As of June 23rd, the Medical Council had received 63 initial applications from candidates offered posts as part of the HSE’s recruitment drive in India and Pakistan.
“Of those initial applications, approximately 75 per cent have required follow up from Medical Council staff to seek clarification or request supply of documentation.”