Vol. 533 No. 3
123 Mr. Naughten asked the Minister for Defence if Army medical personnel are prohibited from performing locum private practice; the extent to which such personnel provide out of hours service to the Army; the current cost of the provision of out of hours service by private practitioners to the Army; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8553/01]
DFR A7 paragraph 20B states that "an officer of the Permanent Defence Force shall not engage in the private practice of any profession in which he may be qualified and in respect of which he is in receipt of pay under subparagraph 16(3) or (4) or paragraph 17 of Defence Force Regulations S3". Military medical officers come within the scope of this provision in that they are thereby prohibited from the personal ownership or personal carrying on of a private medical practice.
Medical officers of the rank of captain and commandant are rostered for the provision of out of hours service to members of the Defence Forces. The incidence of duty is, on average, one duty per week. This is an incidence of rostered duties comparable to that normally required of other officers of similar rank. When the number of medical officers in any military post is insufficient to provide a continuum of 24 hour cover, local arrangements are made to engage civilian medical practitioners to provide such cover as necessary. Details of the cost of out of hours medical services provided by private civilian practitioners to military personnel are not readily available from the records kept by my Department.
