The Medical Council’s new “fast-track” registration process for “critical or urgent” medical posts in the HSE has cut processing times for this cohort by around 94 per cent.
“Project Gateway” is a collaborative initiative with the HSE aimed at fast-tracking critical or urgent posts. It was launched this year.
According to a Medical Council spokesperson: “The purpose of this project is to allow senior hospital staff to directly notify the Medical Council of priority registrations, enabling the registration department to expedite applications. This has significantly reduced waiting times, making a positive impact on Ireland’s healthcare system.
“The fast-track process has cut processing times from 40 weeks to just 2.5 weeks, an efficiency improvement of approximately 94 per cent. As of the end of August, Project Gateway has prioritised over 343 applications, with 315 of those successfully registered. The focus has primarily been on agency-enrolled medical practitioners and rural GPs.”
The HSE has funded this initiative on a pilot basis. A “limited trial” has now commenced for private hospitals, the Council stated.
In September, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly stated the Medical Council had seen a 34 per cent increase in registration applications, and an average 8 per cent reduction in processing times.
According to the Minister’s parliamentary response to Deputy Verona Murphy, the largest number of open applications (4,201) were from non-EU doctors applying for general registration, who had internship equivalency but whose qualifications did not entitle them to automatic recognition under an EU Directive. These applications also had the longest processing time (45.5 weeks). The total number of open applications included doctors deemed eligible for registration, but who had not yet activated their registration.
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