report<\/a> yesterday, warned that such deficiencies reduce assurance that all staff engaged met required regulatory and governance standards when they were taken on \u201cand give rise to potential regulatory, patient safety and operational risks.\u201d<\/p>\nThe HSE audit examined 40 non-EU consultant and junior doctors recruited since 2024, with 20 doctors examined in the HSE Dublin and Midlands region, and 20 in the HSE Dublin and North East region \u2013 covering seven hospitals: the Rotunda Maternity Hospital, and hospitals in Tullamore, Portlaoise, Mullingar, Drogheda, Cavan, and Navan.<\/p>\n
Six doctors out of the 40 in the sample did not have evidence of Garda vetting recorded for the audit \u2013 something Independent Ireland\u2019s Linda de Courcy described as an \u201cabsolute disgrace\u201d .<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall compliance was low for mandatory checks relating to evidence of English language competency and occupational health clearance,\u201d the report found.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvidence of English language competency was not available for 13 employees across the two regions, including two consultants who were assessed as fluent at time of onboarding but for whom no documented evidence was retained on file.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, one site accepted an English language certificate that did not meet the minimum HSE required score and one other site accepted a certificate a year after onboarding.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDeficiencies in completion and\/or retention of evidence of these mandatory checks reduce assurance that staff meet baseline fitness and competency requirements before commencing duties, creating potential patient and employee safety risks,\u201d the auditors said.<\/p>\n
The HSE audit also notes \u201cinconsistent evidence of pre-employment vetting checks\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall compliance achieved for Garda vetting was moderate while compliance achieved for overseas police clearance was low. Evidence of Garda vetting clearance was not available in one region for two employees (while) for a further five employees, Garda vetting clearance was obtained after commencement of employment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNearly 28 per cent of doctors in active clinical practice in 2024 held a basic medical degree from outside Ireland, the UK or the EU. More than 2,300 doctors had graduated in Pakistan and 1,200 qualified in Sudan,\u201d reports the Irish Times.<\/p>\n
TD: \u201cIt\u2019s about standards\u201d<\/p>\n
Reacting, Independent Ireland TD Michael Collins said immediate action was needed to address serious failures identified in the audit as he called the findings \u201cdeeply concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Health Spokesman Collins said the findings raise serious questions about the effectiveness of the HSE\u2019s recruitment oversight and that patients must be given confidence that the deficiencies identified are being dealt with immediately.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese findings are deeply concerning. It is almost inconceivable that there could be such disregard for basic vetting, verification and oversight in the recruitment of doctors who are going directly into patient-facing roles.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPatients have every right to expect that anyone treating them in our public hospitals has undergone the necessary checks, that their qualifications and professional history have been properly verified, that their ability to communicate effectively in English has been established and that the appropriate occupational health clearances are in place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said the issue was not about where a doctor came from, but about ensuring the same robust standards apply to every doctor recruited into the Irish health service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not about nationality. It is about standards, patient safety and accountability. Doctors recruited from overseas make an important contribution to our health service, but every doctor \u2014 regardless of where they trained or previously worked \u2014 must be subject to rigorous and consistently applied checks before undertaking patient-facing duties.\u201d<\/p>\n
The audit found that only two of the seven hospitals reviewed achieved full compliance with English-language competency requirements. It also identified significant regional variation in compliance with Garda vetting and other recruitment controls.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn absolute disgrace\u201d<\/p>\n
Cllr Linda de Courcey said the situation was \u201can absolute disgrace\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard several accounts from people who felt like their nurse\/doctor wasn\u2019t fully qualified and\/or couldn\u2019t speak English properly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis government seems to be doing its utmost to push our medical graduates overseas and bring in people, not from Europe or other Western countries who we can ensure are vetted, properly qualified and can speak the language, but from further afield and now this is what we end up with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Research published by Gript last year found that doctors trained abroad appear to be substantially overrepresented in Fitness to Practise inquiry notifications, according to an analysis of statistics drawn from Medical Council sources.<\/p>\n
Gript analysed all published Medical Council reports related to Fitness to Practise (FTP) cases for the last 17 years.<\/p>\n
We found that doctors who qualified in non-European Union\/non-European Economic Area (EEA) countries, when combined with the UK, EU member states and the broader EEA, accounted<\/a> for over 80 percent of those doctors for whom a Fitness to Practise (FTP) notification was issued by the Medical Council since 2008.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The HSE is appointing doctors from outside the EU to work in Irish hospitals without having assurances about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1695,269673,103,397,396,2120,61,60,269674,1357],"class_list":["post-634825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-doctors","tag-foreign-doctors","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare","tag-hse","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-doctors","tag-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}