Written answers
Wednesday, 4 March 2015
Department of Health
Health Services Staff
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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140. To ask the Minister for Health the number of doctors by specialty, including consultants, non-consultant hospital doctors and general practitioners currently registered and practising in the State; if any studies or assessments have been carried out to ascertain the number of said doctors required in the State to cover all capacity constraints that can and do arise. [9497/15]
Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Medical Council is the statutory body responsible for the regulation of doctors in Ireland. The cornerstone of the Council's work in protecting the public is establishing and maintaining a Register of doctors. The Medical Practitioners Act 2007 governs the Council's work in this regard including determining the Divisions of the Register and requirements for registration of doctors on the Register.
In its medical workforce intelligence reports, the Council publishes an annual analysis of the registration data that it holds. The Council's most recent report, which was published in August 2014, is based on an analysis of data gathered through its June 2013 annual retention of registration process. In all, at year end 2013, 18,160 doctors were registered with the Medical Council.
The distribution of doctors who retained registration for each area of practice and by Division on the Register was reported as follows:
| Area of Practice | Specialist Registration | General Registration | Trainee Specialist Registration | Supervised Registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anaesthesia | 50.9% | 36.6% | 12.5% | - |
| Emergency Medicine | 17.1% | 65.9% | 17.0% | - |
| General Practice | 55.7% | 37.8% | 6.5% | - |
| Medicine | 35.7% | 44.8% | 19.5% | - |
| Obstetrics and Gynaecology | 37.8% | 47.5% | 14.5% | 0.2% |
| Occupational Medicine | 62.6% | 34.0% | 3.4% | - |
| Ophthalmology | 64.1% | 26.6% | 9.2% | - |
| Paediatrics | 36.5% | 46.9% | 16.6% | - |
| Pathology | 62.4% | 25.6% | 12.0% | - |
| Psychiatry | 48.1% | 37.3% | 14.4% | 0.2% |
| Public Health Medicine | 45.8% | 52.7% | 1.4% | - |
| Radiology | 63.9% | 25.2% | 10.8% | - |
| Sports & Exercise | 61.5% | 38.5% | - | |
| Surgery | 39.0% | 49.9% | 11.1% | 0.1% |
With regard to registration on the Specialist Division of the Medical Council's Register, the recognised specialisations of doctors retaining registration was reported as outlined in the following table. In its report, the Council noted that registered doctors may practise in more than one specialty so occurrences may exceed the total number of specialists nationally.
| Specialty | N |
|---|---|
| Anaesthesia | 549 |
| Cardiology | 134 |
| Cardiothoracic Surgery | 33 |
| Chemical Pathology | 10 |
| Child and Adolescent Psychiatry | 124 |
| Clinical Genetics | 6 |
| Clinical Neurophysiology | 12 |
| Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics | 14 |
| Dermatology | 57 |
| Emergency Medicine | 92 |
| Endocrinology and Diabetes Mellitus | 75 |
| Gastroenterology | 120 |
| General (Internal) Medicine | 638 |
| General Practice | 2826 |
| General Surgery | 287 |
| Genito-Urinary Medicine | 8 |
| Geriatric Medicine | 107 |
| Haematology | 3 |
| Haematology (Clinical and Laboratory) | 80 |
| Histopathology | 179 |
| Immunology (Clinical and Laboratory) | 8 |
| Infectious Diseases | 28 |
| Medical Oncology | 54 |
| Microbiology | 76 |
| Nephrology | 57 |
| Neurology | 61 |
| Neuropathology | 6 |
| Neurosurgery | 28 |
| Obstetrics and Gynaecology | 239 |
| Occupational Medicine | 101 |
| Ophthalmic Surgery | 101 |
| Ophthalmology | 141 |
| Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery | 15 |
| Otolaryngology | 87 |
| Paediatric Cardiology | 4 |
| Paediatric Surgery | 14 |
| Paediatrics | 296 |
| Palliative Medicine | 47 |
| Pharmaceutical Medicine | 8 |
| Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery | 60 |
| Psychiatry | 475 |
| Psychiatry of Learning Disability | 33 |
| Psychiatry of Old Age | 76 |
| Public Health Medicine | 104 |
| Radiation Oncology | 46 |
| Radiology | 347 |
| Rehabilitation Medicine | 15 |
| Respiratory Medicine | 104 |
| Rheumatology | 61 |
| Sports and Exercise Medicine | 30 |
| Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery | 178 |
| Tropical Medicine | 2 |
| Urology | 61 |
With regard to the proportion of inactive doctors by area of practice, in total, 635 (4%) of respondents said that they had not practised medicine in the previous 12 months.
As noted in the final report of the Strategic Review of Medical Training and Career Structure, traditionally there has been limited advance/forward planning of medical specialist posts in the public health system in Ireland. In order to address this, in July 2013, the HSE commissioned the Strategic Medical Workforce Planning (MWP) Project. The Project, which is underway in the HSE's National Doctor Training and Planning Unit is on target to develop a medical workforce planning system by June 2015. The core objective is to develop a workforce planning model that will produce medical workforce projections for all medical specialties over time. The system will be based on a statistical model of supply and demand informed by expert stakeholders, and population and medical workforce data. Both entrants into and exits from the workforce will be accounted for. A measure of patient need and the demand for medical specialist services will also be determined and included in the statistical model.
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