Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 9 October 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health
Workforce Planning in the Health Sector: Discussion
I thank our guests for attending and I appreciate the contributions they are making to the health service in monitoring and supervising the medical practitioners. I wish to ask a question arising from Dr. Doyle's presentation and relating to an article on thejournal.ie. Dr. Doyle stated that a "year-on-year decrease in applicants" registering was observed between 2016 and 2018. Articles were written in a number of newspapers that gave the impression that the number of doctors registering in Ireland has gone down, whereas the figures between 2014 and 2018 show an increase from approximately 19,000 to in the region of 22,000. That was an increase of 20.72%. Nowhere did Dr. Doyle make reference to that and, as a result, newspapers have got the impression that there has been a reduction in the number of doctors working in Ireland. Is there not an obligation on the Medical Council to ensure true and accurate figures are given out? That is not what was given or what was picked up by the media.
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