Opinions on med council balance

ORLY?

Two questions.

I've been coming across some posts on boards giving out about new guidelines regarding people on the trainees specialist register covering in other jobs/hospitals. Would someone be able to explain to a med student what this actually means? I'm not sure what the trainee specialist and general registers are, and what the consequences of the change in these rules is for doctors.

Also, while on the issue of changes brought in by the medical council, what do people think of the fact that the council has a lay majority? Some of the lay appointments make sense to me but some of them seem pretty strange, although admittedly, not being on the front line I don't have an understanding of all the issues so maybe in time it will make sense.

Sitric

Hi Orly, i´m also a student so can´t answer your question but wanted to add something to it.

There is a lot of info about the new structure here http://www.medicalcouncil.ie/registration/default.asp

Who lead the drive for the restrictions on trainee registration? e.g only being able to prescribe at their registered place of work, no locum work etc? What was the motivation for these restrictions?

It seems that anyone (post internship and before specialist training) can be on the general register and work/prescribe as they will but if in training you are restricted?

From my understanding of the role of the council historically, the reason it was made up of doctors was to police and enforce the standards and level of competence we would expect and demand from medical practicioners ourselves. As such, it often was stricter than the legislative position. And while some may disagree, I believe we should be held accountable to the highest of standards.

And I agree, some of the appointments seem a bit strange.

Vorsprung

Some people in the Medical Council haven't a clue themselves it would seem. A few of my friends are returning home from abroad and were on to the MCI asking them about different registration categories. The amount of conflicting answers they were getting was getting silly.