Plan to register health professionals

A system of statutory registration for certain health and social care professionals is provided for under a Bill introduced by Minister of State for Health Seán Power.

He said statutory registration was a system underpinned by law whereby each member of a profession may be recognised by a specified body as competent to practise.

"As a legally-binding process, with a mechanism for the prosecution of offences, it ensures a robust system that serves the dual function of protecting the public while ensuring that the good reputation of a profession is not called into question by the poor practices of an individual member."

He added that although a number of professions had informal or voluntary systems of registration organised by their respective professional bodies, only five health professions were currently subject to statutory registration in Ireland: doctors, dentists, nurses, opticians and pharmacists.

Mr Power said the Health and Social Care Professionals Bill represented an important step forward in strengthening the regulatory environment, and it was the first of three Bills intended to improve the regulatory environment for health professions.

Further legislation would follow for medical practitioners and the nursing profession.

Equity, a people-centred approach, quality and accountability were the four tenets of the health strategy, said Mr Power.

"The health strategy is clear on strengthening and clarifying accountability systems.

"It is clear on the value of building on quality initiatives. It is also clear on the importance of good human-resource management."

He said the system of statutory registration put forward in the Bill helped deliver those essential objectives.

Under the measure, hearings of a committee of inquiry would generally be heard in public.

In the course of a hearing, a committee would be empowered to receive evidence, enforce the attendance of witnesses, examine them and compel the production of records.

In extreme and urgent circumstances, said Mr Power, an application could be made to the High Court to suspend a practitioner pending completion of an inquiry.