ANY LAW treating foreign-born doctors differently from their Irish counterparts would amount to discrimination, Overseas Medics of Ireland (OMI) has said.
Online media has reported that the Medical Council is recommending that legislation allow for foreign doctors entering Ireland to be put on probation, or under the supervision of other medical practitioners.
Medical publication Irish Medical News broke the story, writing that the recommendation in a Medical Council submission to the Department of Health and Children would apply to “certain doctors entering the country”.
The Medical Council was unwilling to release the submission to Metro Éireann. A spokesperson said it is in “ongoing discussions” with the department and that the submission “relates to a number of areas” in the Medical Practitioners Act 1997.
She said the council’s main objective is protecting patient safety by “promoting and better ensuring high standards of professional conduct and professional education”.
However, the Overseas Medics of Ireland organisation has reacted with concern to developments.
In a statement, it said: “If any doctor is eligible to get the registration on the basis of qualification and experience then he should be treated equally.”
The group said any new recommendation on improving patient safety should apply to all doctors.
There are over 18,500 registered medical practitioners in Ireland, not all necessarily practising at this time. Some 7,750 are non-Irish.
In January it was reported that over 60 per cent of fitness-to-practise inquiries conducted by the Medical Council in 2010 involved non-Irish doctors. This represented 22 cases.
