Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. I am concerned by the lack of transparency for patients. Last May, our committee was told that the number of doctors working in consultant posts but not on the specialist register was 149. We were given assurances that the HSE would look into reducing that number. However, I received information in recent days saying that the number had increased to 161. Shockingly, my figures show that, in the midlands mental health service, 44% of doctors working in consultant posts are not on the specialist register. In South Tipperary General Hospital, that figure is 31%.

I am glad that a report is on the way to the Minister and I appreciate that some of the recommendations can wait for it, but does he agree that, regardless of what the report says, patients and their families have a right to know if the doctors they are seeing and who they have been told are consultants actually are consultants?

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