The regulatory bodies which will in future adjudicate on the fitness to practise of all healthcare professionals including nurses, doctors, pharmacists, social workers and other grades will be made up mainly of lay people, the Minister for Health has said.
Addressing a conference in Dublin on the regulation of healthcare professionals in Ireland yesterday, Mary Harney said this did not mean that the majority of those on the Medical Council, An Bord Altranais (the nursing board), the Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland, and the council governing social care professionals would be amateurs.
"Lay should not be associated with amateur or ill-informed or not capable. We are talking about lay people who have expertise and you should not have to have medical expertise to be involved in the medical council or a fitness to practise committee," she said.
"After all, jurors every day in court have to use their best judgment and listen to expert witnesses including expert medical witnesses and come to a decision, and fitness to practise committees are very similar.
"I believe we've got to recognise that the regulatory body's role is to regulate in the public interest. Their role is not to represent the profession and sometimes that is misunderstood . . . and I believe in 2006, given all that's happened, the public interest warrants a majority of lay participation. I think people will have more confidence in a system where there is a majority of lay participation," she added.
Ms Harney said the Minister for Health would have a role in the appointments but she stressed: "It's not the intention I can assure you to appoint the friends of the Minister."How lay members were paid when they took time off to attend the meetings of regulatory bodies would have to be looked at, she added.
The heads of a new Nurses Bill, a new Medical Practitioners Act and a new Pharmacy Bill, which will underpin these changes are to be published shortly.
President of An Bord Altranais Anne Carrigy believed it was "a good idea" and the nursing profession would welcome it. She said that at present two of the 29 members of An Bord Altranais were lay people.
But doctors have expressed reservations about having more lay members than medics on the medical council. President of the Medical Council of Ireland Dr John Hillery said a full debate should take place on the advantages and disadvantages of having a majority lay membership on the medical council before a final decision was made.
"I think there are advantages and disadvantages. I think the disadvantages for the public outweigh the advantages.I remain to be convinced that it will be good for the public and good for the profession," he added.
He said preliminary results of a telephone poll conducted for the medical council among almost 250 members of the public during March found 40 per cent favoured continuing self-regulation by the medical profession, but with more members of the public on the medical council.
Some 42 per cent favoured State regulation, with equal members of the profession and the public on the council, while 9 per cent favoured State regulation with few or no doctors on the council.