James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)

I am pleased to be able to lay out for the House the substantial progress that has been made in the recruitment of junior hospital doctors, or non-consultant hospital doctors, NCHDs. It should be noted that this is being achieved against a background of a general shortage of NCHDs affecting western Europe.

As the Deputy indicated, as an emergency measure, I introduced the Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Act 2011, which was signed into law on Friday, 8 July 2011. It provides for the establishment of a new supervised division of the medical register. Registration in the supervised division means that a person is registered for a period not exceeding two years in an identified post approved by the Medical Council and subject to supervision by the employer in line with criteria set down by the Medical Council.

Medical Council systems are in place to ensure patients will be treated by a doctor who has the education, training and skills to provide safe and appropriate care. In the interests of patient safety, doctors therefore can be registered in the supervised division only once they have met all of the registration requirements.

On Monday 11 July, the Medical Council published draft rules outlining eligibility to the new supervised division. As required under the Medical Practitioners Act, the Medical Council held a period of public consultation on the rules. Following a minimum consultation period of one week, rules were published and disseminated by the Council on 18 July 2011. Simultaneously, the council was developing multiple specialty specific examinations for entry to the supervised division with involvement from medical schools and postgraduate training bodies.

Seven speciality-specific examinations were held for 266 candidates between 2 and 12 August and the results have been published. This sequence of work was undertaken and completed in a very short timescale. I commend the Medical Council on its efficiency in bringing us to this position. I can confirm that 236 candidates were successful and, to date, some 144 junior doctors have been registered by the Medical Council with contracts issued by the HSE and they are now attached to posts in the health service. These doctors are making significant contributions to vacancies which existed in areas such as anaesthetics, paediatrics, emergency medicine and general surgery, delivering a safe, effective service to patients. In addition, and significantly, they are reducing the HSE reliance on expensive agency staff.

I am pleased the situation has improved greatly and I have been assured by the HSE that levels of service are being maintained. In July the chief executive of the HSE informed the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children that approximately 190 vacancies had been identified at junior doctor level. Today, 76% of those vacancies have been filled and that number is growing at a rapid pace. That is a commendable achievement within a short space of time and the complexities involved in the entire process.

The Medical Council and the HSE are continuing to work diligently to ensure the necessary procedures to facilitate the registration of doctors are completed without delay, so that they can take up duty as soon as possible. I convened a meeting of the HSE, the Department and the Medical Council earlier this week. There are a number of elements to the processing of the applications. The first is the paper-based application by the candidate submitting all relevant documentation on qualifications, and home state clearance among other requirements. The second is the passing of the practical examination stage and the third is the approval of the posts by the HSE including a declaration from the hospitals regarding the appropriate supervision of the applicants. My Department has been informed by the HSE that all outstanding declarations of supervision from the hospitals will be submitted to the Medical Council by the end of this week and issues relating to the necessary candidate documentation will be also finalised as soon as possible. This will allow for further registrations to be completed quickly and the necessary number of junior doctors to be put in place providing safe and effective treatments to patients.

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