Scheme aims to ensure doctors are fit to work

A NATIONAL strategy to ensure doctors are fit to practice medicine has been published by the Medical Council in advance of new legislation that will make competence assurance mandatory.

The professional practice review scheme, aimed at identifying problem doctors sooner rather than later, will be voluntary until the new Medical Practitioners Bill becomes law later this year, or early next year.

The council is now inviting 400 doctors throughout the country to join a pilot quality improvement programme and hopes to have 200 GPs participating in professional practice reviews in October.

Participants will be required to ask 16 colleagues (medical and non-medical) and 25 patients to complete a questionnaire about their practice that will be assessed by a third party. The council will be alerted about any concerns that may arise.

Every doctor will eventually be legally obliged to undergo an assessment process every five years and the council is anxious to iron out any difficulties in advance of the law being implemented.

While the council believes most doctors are practicing competently and are working hard to keep up to date, no method currently exists by which this can be proven.

The council also believes that it is unacceptable that doctors who are having problems are only dealt with when they cause harm.

Last year the council received about 300 complaints about doctors. Of the 24 that resulted in an inquiry, 15 suggested that the doctor was performing below an acceptable standard.

The recent publication of the Lourdes Hospital

Inquiry and the recommendations of Judge Maureen Harding Clark has highlighted the importance of doctors maintaining competence.

A copy of the document outlining the competence assurance for doctors will be placed on the council’s website today.

A copy will also be posted to all 15,500 registered practitioners, who will be asked for their views on the scheme.

Council vice-president, Dr Colm Quigley, said the aim was to ensure that every doctor in practice underwent an assessment every five years. In some cases the assessments would be carried out more often.

He stressed the competence assurance scheme was not all about doctors policing themselves.

The Performance in Practice Committee (PIPC) Committee to oversee the implementation of the strategy would consist of eight members — four lay people and four doctors, and be chaired by a non-doctor.