Professor Frank Murray:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for inviting us here today.

My name is Frank Murray and I am the director of the HSE's national doctors training and planning unit. I am grateful for the opportunity to appear before this committee to advise members on the role of the national doctors training and planning, NDTP, in consultant recruitment and retention in mental health services, as well as to discuss the role of the consultant applications advisory committee, which has the unfortunate acronym of CAAC.

I shall outline the role of the NDTP division. The division was established in November 2014. It is a division of the HSE's national directorate for human resources. The NDTP's statutory remit is outlined in the Health Act 2004 and the Medical Practitioners Act 2007.

I will read the first paragraph of my presentation in order to set the scene but abbreviate the rest. The main objective of the NDTP is to ensure that the Irish health service is provided with an appropriate number of specialists, who possess the required skills and competencies to deliver high quality and safe care, and whose training is matched to the model of healthcare delivery in Ireland, regardless of location. In order to meet this overarching objective, NDTP focuses on the three core domains of medical education and training, medical workforce planning, and the consultant post approval process. It is important to state that NDTP does not recruit non-consultant hospital doctors, NCHDs, or consultants for the HSE or HSE-funded agencies.

The recruitment and retention of doctors has been evaluated in the report entitled Strategic Review of Medical Training and Career Structure 2014, which is also known as the MacCraith report. I am sure the members are familiar with the report. It contained 27 recommendations on several themes, including training, consultant issues, hospital configuration, medical workforce planning and specific recommendations for service specialties. I have provided a tabular statement that shows three categories of outcomes: positive outcomes; areas of progress, and slow progress. I will leave members to read it themselves.

I will outline the HSE's approach to training numbers in mental health as it is an area of interest for the committee today. The NDTP, in conjunction with the postgraduate medical training bodies, agrees on the intake numbers of doctors in training for each specialty on an annual basis. The principles utilised by the HSE-NDTP to underpin the number and types of specialist training posts required by the health service remains consistent from year to year. I have listed the principles. Will I take them as read?