Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 29 Nov 1990

Vol. 403 No. 3

Written Answers. - Army Service Recognition.

John Browne

Question:

43 Mr. Browne (Carlow-Kilkenny) asked the Minister for Health the reason a doctor's Army service was not professionally recognised by his Department; and if such medical experience in the Irish Army is recognised by the British health authorities as professional medical experience.

Minister for Health (Dr. O'Hanlon)

I presume the Deputy's question relates to the right of entry of general practitioners to the General Medical Service.

Essentially there are three modes of entry to the scheme. (1) Vacancies which arise are filled by way of open competition following public advertisment. The required experience is: (i) six months' experience in fulll-time general practice. The six months' experience need not be continuous but must be in full-time general practice. Experience gained in short term locums, in a locum bureau or in employment otherwise than as a full-time general practitioner is not reckonable towards the aggregate of the six months, (ii) periods of six months' hospital experience in each of any three of the following specialities, or three months in the case of participants in a recognised vocational training scheme — accident and emergency medicine or general surgery, general medicine, geriatric medicine, obstetrics and/or gynaecology, paediatrics and psychiatry. All entrants should have at least six months in either general medicine or paediatrics. (2) The recruitment of assistants with a view to partnership following competition. (3) Doctors who had established themselves in whole-time general practice prior to 1 January 1989 are granted right of entry to the scheme on completion of five years' continuous service provided they satisfy certain conditions.

These arrangements have been the subject of negotiations and agreement between successive Ministers for Health and the Irish Medical Organisation since the inception of the scheme. I understand the reason the doctor in question was not granted entry to the scheme was because he did not satisfy the criteria for such entry. In this regard Army medical practice is treated no differently from any other forms of medical practice in the State.

Ordinary Army service of a regiment type would not be recognised by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom for purposes of entry to their General Medical Services Scheme. Specialised training, for example in anaesthetics or surgery, might be accepted but this would have to be recognised beforehand by one of the royal colleges as a training programme.