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:
--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.
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).
Have anything to share, write down in the comments box
below.
Hey ! I have 3 years teaching experience after house job and then gap of 4 years.. what are the chances of getting the job in ireland?
ReplyDelete..
ReplyDeleteThe gap period will be definitely be inquired at the time of any job interview, should have some plausible reason and better to start practice prior to applying.
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