Medical Council seeks to change rules for doctors

THE IRISH Medical Council yesterday began a period of consultation to change rules governing the registration of medical practitioners in Ireland.

Under the proposed amendments, a new certificate of experience will be established by the council. The introduction of the new certificate will mean medical practitioners who qualified outside the European Economic Area (EEA) will be required to prove compliance with its terms before they can register to practise here.

Úna O’Rourke, head of registration at the Medical Council said: “Until now, there was no standard view of what constituted a certificate of experience so all doctors from outside the EEA had to pass the pre-registration exam.”

Under the new rules, non-EEA qualified doctors who can prove their internship and training complies with the terms of the certificate will not have to sit the exam.

Ms O’Rourke said that at the end of last year, there were 5,500 doctors registered in Ireland who had qualified outside of the EEA.

The draft rules also state that doctors from outside the EEA zone will be required to pass a recognised English language test. However, the draft rules do not stipulate that proficiency in English is required by medical professionals trained within the zone.

The period for public consultation began yesterday and will run until September 14th. Members of the medical profession and the public are invited to make submissions and a final decision will be made by the council in October.