asked the Minister for Health if he will state in relation to the 225 district medical officer posts at present filled on a temporary basis, how soon steps will be taken to fill them on a permanent basis in addition to the 18 posts at present being processed by the Local Appointments Commission.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Medical Officer Posts.
10.
Apart from a very limited number of posts in districts where new permanent appointments will not create difficulty for the operation of the new general medical service with choice of doctor, district medical officer posts now filled on a temporary basis will continue on this basis until the new service is in operation. The Local Appointments Commission has been requested to hold competitions for permanent district medical officer appointments in five districts in addition to the 18 posts recently advertised by the commission.
Is the Minister saying, then, that there will be a choice of doctor in 202 of the district medical officer areas which are now vacant?
We have examined this as closely as possible and the answer to the Deputy is that we have advertised permanent positions in areas where we are perfectly certain the choice of doctor system will not result in a larger number of medical officers attending those with medical cards and in the other areas we anticipate that there will be sufficient medical practitioners to take part in the choice of doctor system.
I think the medical profession does not agree with the Minister.
We are examining this all the time and are watching the situation and I can assure the House that there will be no effort to restrain the appointment of district medical officers on the present dispensary basis if we feel that this is essential. We have already advertised 23 posts recently.