HSE Dublin and Midlands – highest number of ‘non-specialist’ consultants

HSE Dublin and Midlands has the highest number of HSE-employed consultants who are not on the Medical Council’s specialist register.

Nationally, some 113 consultants employed by the HSE were not on the Medical Council’s specialist register at the end of May. This represented a small decrease from April 2024 when the number was 117. In 2024, there were a total of 4,620 consultants employed in the public health service.

As of late May, HSE Dublin and Midlands Region employed 32 non-specialist registered consultants, followed by HSE West and North West (27), and HSE Dublin and South East (19).

HSE Dublin and North East had 14 such consultants, HSE Mid West had 11, and HSE South West had nine. The Irish Blood Transfusion Service employed one consultant not on the specialist register.

The HSE has previously stated that “every conceivable effort” is made to fill consultant posts with doctors who hold specialist registration. However, it is “not always possible to do so”.

HSE policy stipulates that doctors who are not registered on the specialist register are not to be appointed to a consultant post without adhering to a specific protocol, which escalates approval to senior HSE management.

Last year, the then Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly stated that this “escalation protocol” was only used in “the most exceptional circumstances”.

“Where a consultant post is being filled, all options to recruit a suitable candidate with specialist registration must be exhausted before this escalation protocol is invoked,” he stated.

“The measures within the protocol are designed to ensure that it is only in exceptional circumstances that a doctor who is not on the specialist register of the Medical Council is appointed to a consultant post and to ensure appropriate governance and supervision arrangements are in place when such an appointment occurs.”