David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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824. To ask the Minister for Health the postgraduate training post intake in general practice in each of the years 2011 to 2021 and to date in 2022, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18088/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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GP training is in the main four years in duration.  Those undertaking GP training through the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) pathway in Medicine & Emergency medicine complete training in 3 years.  Those undertaking the RPL Paediatric pathway complete in 3 years 8 months.

The intake to GP training has increased from 157 in 2011 to 258 places available in 2022, this is expected to increase by 10% each year to reach target of 350 intake by 2026.

Details of the number of annual intake of trainees on to the GP training programme, in each of the years 2011 to 2022, are set out in the schedule below:

*Expected intake in July 2022

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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825. To ask the Minister for Health the number of general practitioners that successfully completed their postgraduate specialist training in each of the years 2011 to 2021; the number expected in 2022; the breakdown of the graduating cohorts by the year they commenced specialist training; the locations in which graduates took longer, for whatever reason, than four years to complete specialist training in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18089/22]

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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876. To ask the Minister for Health the number of general practitioners who successfully completed their postgraduate specialist training in each of the years 2011 to 2021, in tabular form; the number expected in 2022; the breakdown of the graduating cohorts by the year they commenced specialist training; the number of occasions on which graduates took longer than four years to complete specialist training or in which training was completed in three years through recognition of prior learning; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18307/22]

Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 825 and 876 together.

GP training is in the main four years in duration. Those undertaking GP training through the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) pathway in Medicine & Emergency medicine complete training in 3 years. Those undertaking the RPL Paediatric pathway complete in 3 years 8 months.

Details of the number of GP trainees that successfully completed their postgraduate specialist training in each of the years 2011 to 2021, are set out in the schedule below:

Year Commenced Training:

Currently there are 212 trainees in Year 4, however not all will graduate due to maternity/sick leave, and they will need to gain all parts of the MICGP exams. It is not possible to accurately predict how many trainees will graduate as there are two exam sittings that will affect this number. However, the ICGP estimate between 160 to 180 will graduate in November 2022.

416 trainees took more than 4 years to complete training, in the following locations:

Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) is relatively new in GP training. There have been 10 RPL trainees who have graduated already: 1 in 2021; 5 in 2020; and 4 in 2019 (the first RPL graduates). Since then, the number undertaking training through then RPL pathway has increased. Below is a breakdown of RPL trainees currently in training, by scheme. RPLs are counted in the Year 1 intake, so effectively they skip year 2, directly into Year 3; hence our system does not consider any RPLs in Year 2.