I propose to take Questions Nos. 801 to 803, inclusive, together.
As the Deputy will be aware, the Medical Council is the statutory agency responsible for the registration and regulation of doctors in Ireland. In order to protect patients, it has a responsibility to ensure that all doctors registered to practise medicine in Ireland are safe to do so and meet the requirements to practise as set out in legislation.Officials from my Department have been in regular contact with the Council to examine the ways in which support can be provided to doctors arriving from Ukraine and to ensure that practitioners can be assisted and facilitated in gaining registration where possible. The Council is working with a range of stakeholders in this regard including the HSE, Postgraduate Training Bodies and the Irish Medical Schools Council.
The HSE, through the National Doctors Training & Planning Unit (NDTP), in partnership with the Council and the Postgraduate Training Bodies, is coordinating an information gathering process which is collating information about healthcare professionals who are coming to Ireland. This data collection process is ongoing and will assist the relevant bodies in supporting these doctors and enable them to contact the individual doctors directly. The HSE is also looking at other options which these doctors can avail of while registration is pending, such as medical translation and access to CPD resources.
I recognise that practitioners seeking registration face significant fees and for refugees arriving from Ukraine it may be particularly challenging to meet these costs. This is an issue which is being actively considered by my Department, the Medical Council and the other health profession regulators all of whom recognise the need to provide support to applicants.
The selection of examinations for establishing medical education standards is a matter for the Medical Council. I have been advised that when the Medical Council determined the international exams suitable for the purpose of PRES Level 2 (UK, USA, Australia and Canada), there were a number of considerations including the similarities in the nature of medical education in those countries to that of Ireland. These are seen as the best fit in determining the suitability for registration of a candidate who has not qualified here. The Council has advised that acceptance of the Krok exam, which would enable access to the General Division of the register, would in effect be without any overall assessment of medical education in Ukraine. This could seriously undermine the Council’s ability to fulfil its patient safety remit. These are challenges which other EU Member States are also attempting to address. Officials from my Department form part of a coordination group established by the European Commission to examine the registration of Ukrainian health and social care professionals arriving in EU States as a result of the conflict. This group shares knowledge and best practice and is examining methods to streamline and expedite registration for these professionals, including the use of electronic databases, the EU information centres for academic recognition and machine translation tools.
Registration in the Supervised Division is granted to doctors who have been offered a post that has been approved by the Health Service Executive (HSE), which has specific supervisory arrangements. The Council cannot grant registration in the Supervised Division until the HSE has confirmed there is a publicly funded post available. The information currently available indicates that the Supervised Division is not the optimum route at this time. I fully appreciate the importance of facilitating access to employment for doctors arriving to Ireland. My Department, along with the Medical Council and the HSE will continue to ensure that all avenues are being explored with a view to enabling Ukrainian qualified doctors to apply for registration, always conscious of the need to ensure that patient safety, is to the fore of any decisions regarding registration.
