Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I welcome this opportunity to speak on this important legislation. The establishment of this new division of the register of medical practitioners to be called the supervised division with the intention of smoothing the way for the recruitment of non-consultant hospital doctors from abroad is timely and, indeed, necessary considering the current difficulties relating to the recruitment of NCHDs. I am conscious that the shortage of junior doctors is currently a problem in hospitals across the world.

I also recognise the efforts of the Minister to recruit doctors to fill the posts which will become vacant from 11 July. He has already succeeded in recruiting 200 potential candidates from Pakistan and India, thanks in part to an extensive recruitment drive abroad. I am also conscious that the Minister has patient safety uppermost in his mind and has made it clear that he must only employ NCHDs who are suitably qualified and proficient in the English language.

While the Minister is working hard to resolve the current shortage and the establishment of this new supervised division will bring new NCHDs into the system next week, we need to look at the bigger picture and examine the problem of the shortage of NCHDs generally to ensure this situation will not arise again.

Despite this being a worldwide issue, I make a brief point about one specific issue I believe could help to improve the situation in Ireland. I have a suggestion to make which would help to combat the current shortage of junior doctors. I suggest the Minister for Health consider the possibility of extending to two years the pre-registration period for all junior doctors. We need to keep young Irish-trained doctors in Ireland. Let us face it: there are enough people emigrating in other sectors. Extending the pre-registration period to two years would bring practice in Ireland into line with that in the United Kingdom where the system requires junior doctors to work in foundation years 1 and 2 before completing their internship. I submitted this idea in the form of a parliamentary question to the Minister on 24 June. In his response he indicated that he would examine the option, for which I am grateful. He stated, "The question of contracting doctors who were trained in Ireland to work for a certain period in our public health system is among the options which I intend to examine in the context of the healthcare workforce planning."

The shortage of junior doctors is most visible in accident and emergency units. Accordingly, I suggest that if we require junior doctors to work for a second year, it should be spent in an accident and emergency unit under the supervision of a consultant. This morning I spoke to a consultant anaesthetist who informed me that in several smaller hospitals doctors training to be anaesthetists were putting people to sleep under anaesthetic for operations and, often, the surgeons working with these trainee anaesthetists were also non-consultant surgeons, that is to say, not fully qualified either. The point is that when junior doctors are trained, the trainees should not be running hospital accident and emergency units. The provision of adequate training for junior doctors should also be addressed.

The explanatory memorandum notes that the reasons for the shortage of junior doctors are complex and include the fact that the posts in question are largely non-training posts. Changing the system to a two-year registration scheme could contribute to the efforts to retain junior doctors in Ireland. We are losing their services, since many of them leave the country after their one-year internship.

I acknowledge that the Minister supports the need to reduce the hours currently worked by non-consultant hospital doctors. He should consult junior doctors because they have a view also and often their voice is not heard because of various lobby groups among the medical organisations.

I welcome the Bill and applaud the efforts of the Minister to solve the crisis. I hope he will take my comments on board.

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