Reilly has name restored to medical register

The Minister for Health James Reilly has had his name restored on the medical register.

Dr Reilly had voluntarily withdrawn from the register, which is operated by the Medical Council, on his appointment as Minister in 2011.

However he had his name re-registered just around three weeks ago.

A spokesman for the Minister said this was done for “technical reasons”.

Under law a doctor has to be on the medical register if they want to practise medicine in Ireland.

A spokesman for Dr Reilly confirmed last night that he had his name re-instated on the medical register in recent weeks.

The spokesman said that Dr Reilly in 2011 had secured approval from the HSE to take indefinite leave from his medical practice in north Dublin for the duration of his period in office.

He said that a locum had taken over the running of the practice.

However the spokesman said that the locum in charge of the practice had recently changed.

The spokesman said that Dr Reilly had been advised that for technical reasons he should have his name restored to the medical register.

In 2011 Dr Reilly said in an interview that he was withdrawing his name voluntarily as it would not be “appropriate” for him to remain on the register.

He indicated at the time that one of the reasons behind him stepping down from the medical register was becuse of the difficulties in meeting requirements for on-going professional development while at the same time running the health service.

“It would be extremely difficult for me to find the time to continue with my professional development programme. I have a huge amount of work to do to fix the health service and that’s where my focus is going to be.”

At the time Dr Reilly urged other doctors who were unable to fulfil the new requirements for professional development to reconsider their positions in the interest of patient safety.