The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) has proposed setting up a separate training programme for overseas graduates who wish to come to the Republic to train as surgeons.
The move has been made in response to concerns expressed by the Medical Council that many non-national doctors work in posts without formal training arrangements, especially in regional hospitals.
However, according to a doctor who contacted The Irish Times, the initiative could prevent overseas doctors from entering the Specialist Register of the Medical Council, thereby barring foreign nationals for applying for consultants posts in the State.
An early discussion document by the RCSI states: "Ocompletion of the six-year overseas surgical residency programme, the trainees would take the new proposed examination and would receive an appropriate certificate or diploma related to their period of training in the country. This certificate would not... entitle the trainee to entry on the Specialist Register of the Medical Council."
However, a subsequent proposal from the college, dated December 2002, says: "This programme will largely be directed at those NCHDs [non-consultant hospital doctors] who are non-nationals and who will not eventually be practising surgery in this country, but who nevertheless deserve the very highest quality training and education while they work here."
The six-year programme, which involves trainees rotating through various surgical posts, will provide training in the theory of surgery, technical skills and the personal skills required to become a consultant surgeon.
An innovative educational programme, partly delivered on the Internet, it will include access to a surgical teaching laboratory where trainees will receive hands-on training and supervision. According to the RCSI, 410 junior doctors working in surgery are not part of any formal training programme here.
Meanwhile, the latest report on consultant staffing produced by Comhairle na nOspidéal shows there were 1,731 consultants and 3,932 non-consultant hospital doctors in the public health service on January 1st, 2003.
There is now one hospital consultant per 2,260 population compared to a ratio of 1:3,000 a decade ago.
While the average age on appointment of new consultants in the Republic in 2002 was 39 years, there has been a significant increase in female consultants employed here. In 1990, the male to female ratio of hospital specialists was 87 per cent to 13 per cent.
The proportion of female consultants had risen to 24 per cent in 2002. This remains well below the number of women who graduate from medical school. Female students now outnumber male medical students by approximately 60:40.