Medical Council advice for business owners, patients, and users of telemedicine services
Friday 4th July 2025: The Medical Council is today highlighting advice for employers, patients, and members of the public who use telemedicine services. Telemedicine is the use of technology such as telephones, websites, apps, and Zoom by a registered medical practitioner, to provide healthcare services to patients.
Role of the Medical Council
The Medical Council is the regulatory body for doctors. It has a statutory role in protecting the public by promoting the highest professional standards among doctors practising in Ireland.
The Medical Council regulates individual registered medical practitioners and does not regulate clinics, medical practices, or websites. Its role is to ensure that doctors registered in this State who provide treatment to patients via telemedicine are doing so safely; and meeting professional, ethical, and legal obligations.
If doctors registered with the Medical Council are working in telemedicine, this does not alter their professional, ethical, or legal obligations, regardless of how the doctor-patient interaction occurs.
Ethical principles
All doctors registered with the Medical Council are expected to follow principles of professional practice. These are set out in the Medical Council’s Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Medical Practitioners (9th edition) (“the Guide”).
The Guide is clear when it comes to doctors issuing certificates, reports and other documentation that they ensure they are accurate and include their Medical Council registration number. Doctors should only sign a certificate, report or document for a patient following a review of the patient’s condition. Section 52 of the Guide states:
52.1 When issuing certificates, reports, and other formal documents, you
must
ensure that they are accurate and legible. You must also include your Medical Council registration number.
52.2 You
should
only sign a certificate, report, or document for a patient following a review of the patient’s condition.
Section 37 of the Guide refers to the use of telemedicine in clinical practice and says:
‘Telemedicine is the use of technology such as telephones, websites, apps, and software platforms to provide and support healthcare for patients.
37.1 If you provide telemedicine services to patients, you must observe the same standards of conduct and practice as would be expected if treating the patient in-person.’
Advice for business owners
Under the Sick Leave Act 2022, only medical certificates signed by a registered medical practitioner (i.e., a doctor who is registered with the Medical Council) are valid for statutory sick leave. The medical certificate must be signed by a registered medical practitioner in the Republic of Ireland, be written in an official language (English or Irish) and must cover each day of illness.
Employers who have concerns about whether a sick cert is signed by a registered doctor in Ireland can visit the Medical Council website and check the register with the doctor’s name or Medical Council number, which should be on the certificate, to ensure that the doctor is indeed registered to practice medicine in Ireland.
Advice for patients and members of the public
The Medical Council’s Telemedicine guidance outlines that patients are entitled to expect the same standard of care with telemedicine, as at an in-person consultation. We also advise members of the public to check the register, to ensure that the doctor is registered, when engaging in telemedicine services. The Medical Council’s Register is available on our website here.
Before your online consultation, find a quiet space to ensure you are not disturbed during your appointment. Prepare your medical history, have your information ready, and consider any technical aspects. If you’re using an online service or app, take the time to read and understand the privacy policy. It’s important that you speak to your GP or healthcare provider if you need more information.
Complaints
If the doctor is registered with the Medical Council but is issuing certificates or prescription medication without proper consultation, a complaint can be made to the company providing the service or to the Medical Council directly.
The Medical Council investigates complaints against individual doctors. While the Medical Council cannot comment on individual complaints, it has received complaints relating to doctors involved in telemedicine and has taken action to address these matters.
Dr Maria O’Kane, CEO of the Medical Council said, “Technology and the use of telemedicine services is continuously changing, and the Medical Council is constantly keeping a review of developments to ensure appropriate guidelines are in place for doctors.
“Earlier this week, we welcomed the Department of Health paper on the supply and demand of General Practice in Ireland. Our research shows that 31.1% of clinically active GPs in Ireland are over the age of 55, bringing them closer to the typical retirement age.
“We know there is a shortage of GPs in Ireland, which is fundamentally a patient safety issue. The Medical Council is proactively working with stakeholders to bring more GPs into communities across Ireland.
“Telemedicine can be an excellent, affordable tool for patients wishing to access consultations, prescriptions, and sick certificates with doctors, including GPs. However, it is worth re-emphasising that doctors who work in telemedicine must follow the same professional, ethical and legal obligations as in-person consultations, regardless of how the doctor-patient interaction occurs,” Dr O’Kane concluded.
Later this month, the Medical Council will publish its 2024 Medical Workforce Intelligence Report, which will highlight GP capacity across Ireland, patient safety issues, data on the entire medical workforce, doctors joining the register and doctors leaving the register.