By this short Bill, it is proposed to make a minor change, which has been recommended to me by the Medical Registration Council, in the law on medical registration.
The Medical Practitioners Act of 1951 provides that a medical practitioner is not entitled in this country to full registration until, after obtaining his qualifying diploma, he had a year's practical experience in an approved hospital. The purpose of the "intern year", as this period of experience is commonly called, is to ensure that each medical practitioner will, in addition to his academic knowledge, have practical experience under supervision before he enters fully on the practice of his profession.
The obligation to do the intern year presents no problem in the case of a medical practitioner qualifying for the first time in this country. If a medical practitioner, qualified in Britain, comes to live in Ireland and wishes to transfer from the British to the Irish Register, there is likewise no difficulty as the obligation to do an intern year applies in Britain also. Similarly, if a medical practitioner wishes to be registered here on the basis of a qualifying diploma obtained in one of the territories with which we have reciprocal arrangements for medical registration, our present law exempts him from the obligation to do an intern year here if he can satisfy the Medical Registration Council that, after qualifying abroad, he has gained experience equivalent to that which he would get if he did his intern year in this country.
A small number of medical practitioners, however, come here from countries with which we have no reciprocal arrangements for medical registration. Some of these practitioners may have high qualifications, and they may have had very considerable professional experience; but before one of them can become registered here he must, after obtaining an Irish qualifying diploma, then undergo the intern year as if he were a newly-qualified Irish medical graduate with no experience whatever. This is obviously not a practical necessity where the medical practitioner has been, for many years perhaps, in practice in his native land and it is a defect in our present legislation that the Medical Registration Council cannot exempt such a man or woman from this requirement, if it wishes to do so.
It is to correct this defect that I have introduced the present Bill. It will enable the Medical Registration Council to waive the requirement to do an intern year for any foreign medical practitioner applying for inclusion in the Irish Register who, having taken an Irish qualifying diploma, satisfies the Council that his original qualification was sufficient for the efficient practice of medicine and that he has had experience equivalent to that of the "intern year" in his own or another country. While such a practitioner will still need to get the Irish qualifying diploma, I understand that concessions in relation to the period of study required before sitting for the examination for such a diploma are given in such cases by some of the medical schools. The Bill will make a desirable improvement in the law relating to Medical Registration and I recommend it accordingly.
