Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024
1476. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Health the number of medical professionals that leave Ireland each year; and if he has considered making it a stipulation of a college degree in each health service profession that each health service graduate practices in Ireland for at least five years before travelling abroad. [56406/23]
View answerThe HSE has undertaken a project using doctors Medical Council numbers to track the actual numbers of doctors leaving and returning to the Irish health system over time. Data was sourced from the National Doctors Training and Planning Doctors Integrated Management E-System (DIME). DIME records registration, training and employment details of all Consultant and Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs) in Ireland who are employed in the Public Service. As part of this work doctor retention was examined focusing on the risk of exit from the Irish system at the beginning and end of training i.e. following intern year and end of postgraduate training programme. The findings indicate that while there are patterns of high outward migration at various stages of NCHDs careers, there is a pattern of return with a high number returning to commence further post graduate training and/or take up a Consultant post in Ireland. This work was recently published in the Irish Journal of Medical Sciences link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11845-023-03288-8. Key findings are outlined below:
• Review of intern year 2015-2020 data indicates a trend of interns leaving the system immediately following intern year however a substantial number have returned to HSE within 2-3 years.
• 84% of interns who commenced intern training in 2015 subsequently commenced a Basic Specialist Training or General Practice (GP) training programme in subsequent years (2016-2021).
• Of those who completed BST training in 2017, 75% went on to higher specialist training (HST) in Ireland.
• In 2021, of the 2016 cohort of doctors who completed specialist training (excluding GP training programme) 68% are employed in Ireland and 32% are abroad or unknown.
• In Ireland it is very common for doctors who have completed postgraduate training to undertake a Fellowship or experience abroad before taking up a consultant post. When tracking retention, it is important to take into consideration this trend.
The National Doctor Training and Planning Office of the HSE are currently finalising an Annual Medicine Retention report for 2023, to be published in Q1 2024 which highlights the most recent data on doctor retention rates. In addition to the findings above the report highlights that there has been a substantial improvement in the retention rates of doctors who complete specialist training (excluding GP training) in the 2018 and 2019 cohorts with 75% and 78% respectively working in public or private posts in Ireland in 2023.
In relation to making it a stipulation of a college degree that health graduates practice in Ireland for at least five years before travelling abroad the Department of Health may consider examining this issue with a view to doing research regarding best practice in place in other jurisdictions which require graduates to work in their health services for a period following graduation.
