Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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408. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the total number of personnel in her Department that work on medical assessments; the number of medical assessors currently employed by her Department; the number of these who, in addition to being qualified doctors, have attained specialist medical qualifications; if she will list such specialist medical qualifications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41100/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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There are currently twenty one Medical Assessors, including the Chief Medical Advisor (CMA) and Deputy Chief Medical Advisor (DCMA), who conduct medical assessments across the range of my Department's illness related schemes. Medical Assessors (MA) are fully qualified and experienced practitioners who provide a second opinion to that of the person’s own doctor. Their assessments conform to the ethical conduct and behaviour guidelines of the Irish Medical Council.

They are required to be on the general register of medical practitioners while holding an appointment in the Department and must have at least six years satisfactory experience in the practice of medicine since registration before appointment. While a specialist post-grad qualification is not a requirement for appointment as an MA the specialist post-graduate qualifications held by the MA team, inclusive of the CMA and DCMA are outline in tabular format below and the acronyms are also explained in tabular format. There are also a number of MAs who have done a full 6 month rotation in Psychiatry as part of their GP specialist training.

Following appointment all Medical Assessors receive special training in eligibility assessment and disability evaluation. They have an on-going commitment to continuing medical education to ensure that standards are maintained and enhanced. They work in a collegiate way to ensure that best practice and professional expertise is shared and applied across all of the cases that are reviewed by them. This includes daily case conference meetings and a medical research unit has been established to actively engage in the update of the body of medical knowledge and evidence based practice. Further recruitment of Medical Assessors is underway.

Specialist Post- graduate Qualifications Held by the MA Team