Medical Council publishes draft five-year Strategy for Public Consultation

Medical Council publishes draft five-year Strategy for Public Consultation

Thursday, 3rd January 2019: The Medical Council has today announced that its five-year strategic plan, to cover the period 2019 – 2023, is open for public consultation. This is the third plan since the introduction of the 2007 Medical Practitioners Act and is a progression of the previous 2014 – 2018 strategy.

Central to the development of this plan has been a comprehensive review of the previous document, the setting of objectives for the forthcoming 5-year period and most significantly, engagement with all of the key stakeholders of the Medical Council. The review process also looked at international best practice and has sought to factor in regulatory and legislative developments on the horizon over the next three to five years.

The strategy has been developed to respond to six key objectives, which are:

• Be a global leader in Medical Regulation
• Seek the necessary changes to legislation to bring Irish Medical Regulation into line with international best practice.
• Learning from experience to deliver an efficient and proportionate model of regulation.
• Improve the understanding of the role of The Medical Council.
• To develop an agile organisation that is empowered, engaged and effective.
• Ensure consistency across all medical education and training, to quality assure performance in practise, recognising key transition points in the continuum of education and professional identity formation.

As part of the strategic review process, the Medical Council has updated its Vision, Mission and Values to reflect the focus of the Council in the period 2019 – 2023. The delivery of its remit will be guided by those principals.

“Following the considerable body of work that has been undertaken, we have arrived at a five-year strategy that is realistic, innovative, ambitious and that we believe will position the Medical Council as a global example of best practice as it is the body responsible for the regulation of registered medical practitioners in Ireland,” said Dr Rita Doyle, President, the Medical Council.

“In the development of this plan we have conducted a comprehensive programme of engagement with all of our key stakeholders and we have conducted a thorough review of current international best practice,” said Bill Prasifka, CEO, the Medical Council. “We will now welcome further responses and suggested contributions during the consultation period”.

To make submissions on the draft strategic review, please log on to www.medicalcouncil.ie. The deadline for submission is 22nd January 2019.

Following the public consultation, the draft strategy will be reviewed, in light of the submissions received, and submitted to the Minister for Health for his consideration in advance of being laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.

ENDS

Note to editor:

• The Draft Statement of Strategy for 2019 - 2023 is available here: