Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 March 2019

Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Defence

Estimates for Public Services 2019
Vote 35 - Army Pensions (Revised)
Vote 36 - Defence (Revised)

Photo of Paul KehoePaul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Many of these cases hinge on a clinical decision for the doctor. We have our own in-house GPs but we have to bring in locums on occasion to see members of the Defence Forces. Their reports are put on the medical files. If a member of the Defence Forces living in south County Wexford wakes up, is unable to go to work and has to get some sort of doctor's certificate, that is a clinical decision. If the member goes to his or her local doctor and is told to stay at home as a result of the clinical diagnosis made, whether to pass that information to the Defence Forces medical corps is a clinical decision for the doctor.