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Primary Care Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 April 2022

Tuesday, 5 April 2022

Questions (825, 876)

David Cullinane

Question:

825. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of general practitioners that successfully completed their postgraduate specialist training in each of the years 2011 to 2021; the number expected in 2022; the breakdown of the graduating cohorts by the year they commenced specialist training; the locations in which graduates took longer, for whatever reason, than four years to complete specialist training in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18089/22]

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David Cullinane

Question:

876. Deputy David Cullinane asked the Minister for Health the number of general practitioners who successfully completed their postgraduate specialist training in each of the years 2011 to 2021, in tabular form; the number expected in 2022; the breakdown of the graduating cohorts by the year they commenced specialist training; the number of occasions on which graduates took longer than four years to complete specialist training or in which training was completed in three years through recognition of prior learning; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18307/22]

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Written answers

I propose to take Questions Nos. 825 and 876 together.

GP training is in the main four years in duration. Those undertaking GP training through the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) pathway in Medicine & Emergency medicine complete training in 3 years. Those undertaking the RPL Paediatric pathway complete in 3 years 8 months.

Details of the number of GP trainees that successfully completed their postgraduate specialist training in each of the years 2011 to 2021, are set out in the schedule below:

Year Commenced Training:

Year of Graduation

Currently there are 212 trainees in Year 4, however not all will graduate due to maternity/sick leave, and they will need to gain all parts of the MICGP exams. It is not possible to accurately predict how many trainees will graduate as there are two exam sittings that will affect this number. However, the ICGP estimate between 160 to 180 will graduate in November 2022.

416 trainees took more than 4 years to complete training, in the following locations:

Years in Training

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is relatively new in GP training. There have been 10 RPL trainees who have graduated already: 1 in 2021; 5 in 2020; and 4 in 2019 (the first RPL graduates). Since then, the number undertaking training through then RPL pathway has increased. Below is a breakdown of RPL trainees currently in training, by scheme. RPLs are counted in the Year 1 intake, so effectively they skip year 2, directly into Year 3; hence our system does not consider any RPLs in Year 2.

RPL TRAINEES 2021/22

TRAINING YEAR

-

-

-

TRAINING SCHEME

1

3

4

Per Scheme

BALLINASLOE

1

1

CORK

4

5

3

12

HSE DUB MID LEIN

2

2

1

5

MID LEINSTER

2

2

1

5

MID-WEST (UL)

3

1

1

5

NORTH DUBLIN TP

3

2

5

NORTH EASTERN

2

2

4

RCSI

3

1

3

7

SLIGO

1

1

2

SOUTH EAST

2

2

SOUTH WEST

1

1

2

TCD

6

2

1

9

WESTERN

4

1

1

6

Per Training Year

33

18

14

65

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