Sir, – The untimely and tragic death of Pte Sean Rooney in Lebanon has led to many tributes to all those who daily risk their lives in the service of the State as UN peacekeepers.
The current appreciation of, and pride in, those who dedicate their lives to the service of the State at home and abroad in the Defence Forces could be harnessed to attain an even greater utility. At present, the professional qualifying criteria for direct entry medical officers to the Defence Forces is three years postgraduate experience. In contrast, the professional qualifying criteria for a prison medical officer is registration on the Medical Council’s Specialist Division in General Practice, with its associated postgraduate training and experience. While the former is charged with the medical care of Defence Forces personnel, the latter is charged with the medical care of the prison population. This implied inequity of standards should be addressed forthwith.
Ultimately, as recognised in 2015 by the Irish Medical Council, the specialty of military medicine and its associated training programme is the most appropriate training and qualification for future military doctors in the Defence Forces. However, since induction of the five-year training programme in 2017, there have been inordinate delays in its the roll-out, with a failure to even advertise in the last year. This has resulted in the Department of Defence resorting to recruitment of non-specialist direct entry medical officers, at approximately 50 per cent of salary of a specialist.
It is to be hoped that the current recognition by the general public of the selfless attitude of those serving the State both at home and abroad in the Defence Forces can persuade those in authority to overcome current barriers to the recruitment of trainees to the Military Medicine Training Scheme, and thereby establish military medicine as the default qualification for future medical officers, to the benefit of all personnel in the Defence Forces. – Yours, etc,
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Dr GERALD M KERR,
(Colonel, retired),
Tower,
Co Cork.