Getting Medical Council Ireland license on PRESS exemption basis for IMGS

 Ireland, a country with rich history and beautiful landscape, is also among the top destinations for foreign medical graduates, aiming for career in an excellent health care service.

Health care in IRELAND is governed by the regulatory body HEALTH SERVICE EXECUTIVE ( HSE), similar to the NHS in the UK. HSE ensures the minimum service delivery standards and quality heath care for the citizens of Ireland. Apart from the public sector health facilities under the HSE, private health care establishments also cater to the medical needs of the public.

For IMGS especially, Pakistani medical graduates, working as a doctor in Ireland has been lucrative due to the exemption for medical licensing exam (PRESS), henceforth, Pakistani graduates as well as graduates from countries listed below can apply medical practitioner license based on exemption and proceed directly with the job.

Here we will discuss the pathway for Irish medical license.

Application process overview:

First step is to apply to Irish medical council on the appropriate form and submit fee for assessment and verification of the candidate and his credentials.

After the initial assessment candidates can proceed with either the licensing exam i.e. PRESS which consists of two parts, the first one is mcq’s based exam that checks the medical knowledge followed by the part II exam which is the OSCE, this assesses candidates practical skills.

Otherwise, if eligible candidates from select countries can apply for registration based on exemption of press exam, based on candidates internship experience in their native country.

Countries for which press exam is exempted:

If a candidate has internship experience from the following countries, he can apply for Irish medical license without passing PRESS exam;

Pakistan (internship after 2009), New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Malaysia, Sudan, UK, Malta.

 

Applying for Irish medical license on exemption basis step by step:

 Pre-requisites:

--Basic medical qualification i.e. MBBS degree (please get the degree from your university, provisional certificates will not be acceptable).

--Passport

-- OET (Minimum Grade B) OR Ilets certificate (overall 7.0 minimum score 6.5 in each module)

--Internship Certificate :

   (IMC accepts internship certificate from PMC/PMDC only for Pakistani medical graduates, the hospital experience certificate will not be accepted directly. The house job should be structured with 4 rotations in 1-year period including General Medicine, General Surgery and two subspecialties e.g. Following specialities must not be less than 2 months and more than 4 months.

• Emergency Medicine
• General Practice
• Obstetrics and Gynecology
• Pediatrics
• Psychiatry
• Anesthesia
• Radiology

Following are lists of specialties that are acceptable by the Irish medical council for PRESS exemption.

Anesthesia: Anesthesia.

Pediatrics: Pediatric Cardiology/Pediatrics.

Medicine & Allied: General Medicine, Cardiology, Clinical Genetics, Clinical Neurophysiology, Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, Dermatology, Endocrinology & Diabetes Mellitus, Gastroenterology, Genito-urinary Medicine, Geriatric Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Medical Oncology, Nephrology, Neurology, Palliative Medicine, Respiratory Medicine, Rheumatology, Tropical Medicine.

Surgery and allied: General Surgery, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Neurosurgery, Ophthalmic Surgery, Oral & Maxillo- Facial Surgery, Otorhinolaryngology, Pediatric Surgery, Plastic Reconstructive &Aesthetic Surgery, Trauma & Orthopedic Surgery, Urology.

Psychiatry: Psychiatry, Psychiatry of old age, Psychiatry of Learning Disability, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Radiology: Radiology, Radiation Oncology.

Obstetrics and Gynecology: Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Emergency Medicine: Emergency Medicine.

 It should be noted that candidates currently choosing their house-job rotations should consider the above-mentioned specialties and also when applying for hospital experience certificates ensure the name of specialty is the same as in the IMC approved list e.g. IMC approved list shows Otorhinolaryngology, hence ENT wouldn’t be acceptable.

EPIC account registration

Now having all the pre-requisites ready, First step is to sign-up for an EPIC account, EPIC by ecfmg is a qualification verification agency that verifies your qualification and submits reports to the relevant authorities, in this case Irish medical council, we have already written on how to create your epic account here.

You will sign up for the EPIC account, after your account is made and notarization done proceed with the verification of your primary medical qualification i.e. MBBS Degree via EPIC

Second is the verification of your internship certificate via epic. As already mentioned for the verification of your internship certificate you will first have to apply for Practical experience certificate via PMC/PMDC, this can all be done online now.

     Visit the PMC website sign-in to your account and head over to good standing / Practical experience application section, fill the required data for practical experience certificate, attach your hospital experience certificate, for the regulator details write in Ireland, email: [email protected], address of regulator “ Medical Council, Upper Ground Floor and 5th Floor, Block 9 (Europa House), Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2, D02 WR20”, select no to courier option.

So to summarize, get your practical experience certificate from PMC, proceed with epic account creation, submit your MBBS degree and practical experience in EPIC for verification and enter the Irish medical council as the body to which  EPIC should send its report.

 

Applying at the Irish Medical Council:

Once your epic verification of documents is complete and report sent, visit the medical council Ireland website https://www.medicalcouncil.ie/ and create an account, provide your biodata details, you will have to select “no” for internship registration as you have already done internship, you will be applying to the general medical registration, select certificate of experience route as you will be applying on PRESS exemption basis.

Further details required are your medical qualification and issuing authority, details about your registration with medical council in Pakistan/native country.

In professional indemnity section, select section 5

Read any disclaimers and submit the appropriate fee.

After submission of the application, you will receive a cover letter via email.

Submission of documents via post

After the application is submitted you will need to send the following documents via post to IMC, at their provided address.

Cover letter

Notarized Colour copy of passport

OET / ILETS Certificate copy

Now wait for receiving of your application which might take few weeks, you will get an email acknowledging the submission of your application and asking you to submit good standing certificate.

Now apply for good standing certificate at PMC website, submit the required fee, enter Irish medical council as the regulator and select send directly to council. It should  be noted that good standing certificate is valid only for three months, hence apply for it when asked by IMC.

 

Now wait for your application assessment, once complete, the council will send you an eligibility letter and a Genform. Fill in the required details with the Genform and send it back to the council with required documents.

 

Finally, you will be asked to submit the license registration fee and wait for the formal issuance of your license.

 

Time required for the Irish medical council registration:

The whole process can take almost 6-12 months, so plan accordingly.

 

Fee’s / expense for the Irish medical council registration:

EPIC account: $130

Verification of each credential: $100 each

In addition, there might be verification charges of the university/ PMC etc.

PMC experience certificate ~ Rs. 3000

Good standing certificate ~ Rs. 9000

Irish Medical council application fee  €410

License registration fee    €560 (Full Year)

      Half-year  (Jan - Apr)   €280

 

These are the main expenses encountered in the registration process, some other minor charges might occur along with the currency rate fluctuation, which should be kept in consideration.

 

After getting a license:

With the Medical Council Ireland license in hand, the next step is to proceed with is finding jobs, the jobs to look for are SHO Level or Registrar level if you have prior training experience.

NCHD (Non-Consultant-Hospital-Doctor) jobs start between January and July. Job offers for January induction run from September-December. Similarly, Job offers for July induction run from April-June.

You can apply for jobs on HSE website https://www.hse.ie/eng/ or recruitment agencies.

The license is general category but since last one or two years license holders are now allowed training registration on the same license without appearing in press exam.

The expected salaries at junior level vary from  €2500 – 3000, living expenses are high in the main cities e.g. DUBLIN.

A Single person can aim for saving’s around €1000- 1500.

Another positive about working in Ireland is it is comparably easier to get nationality here than in neighbouring countries, or otherwise you can proceed with yearly work visa (this adds up cost).

Another option for IMG'S can be, locum jobs, that pay a little bit more.

For those currently in-training at cpsp, MTI-Ireland is a 2 years program i which you get ireland experience at the same time complete your cpsp training requirements with the caveat that you need to return after the 2 years are complete and can't come back for at-least 12 months. More on the MTI-CPSP scheme here.

If you are planning long-term carrier than you can apply for training positions as GP or BST (Basic speciality training followed by higher speciality training to become a consultant).

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