Doctors in Different Working Circumstances

NB: Requirements for the current PCS year are 40 CPD credits and 1 clinical/practice audit

There are no special requirements for doctors occupying several roles simultaneously. Once registered, a doctor has the right to practice medicine. From the public perspective, the responsibility to maintain professional competence must apply to all doctors, regardless of their working arrangements.

Maintenance of professional competence is based on your day-to-day practice. You should enrol in a professional competence scheme, and engage in activities to maintain your competence, that reflects your day-to-day practice of medicine. Your area of day-to-day practice should be reflective of your registered specialty; if it is not, you should not represent yourself as being registered as having a specialty in that particular area. If you are registered in one or more specialties, but your practice is focused on other areas of practice, you may wish to consider withdrawing voluntarily from the specialty (or specialties) which you do not actively practice.

Source: Medical Council

NB: Requirements for the current PCS year are 40 CPD credits and 1 clinical/practice audit

NB: Requirements for the current PCS year are 40 CPD credits and 1 clinical/practice audit

If you are on maternity leave, sick leave or compassionate leave from active practice in excess of 3 months during a Professional Competence year you should Contact Us.

While the same professional competence requirements apply to doctors on leave, the Medical Council recognises that it may not be possible to achieve all requirements in this situation. The Council have asked the training bodies to make a note on the Statement of Participation for any doctors on maternity leave, sick leave or compassionate leave so that this can be taken into account where necessary. If you do have a shortfall in a given year, you are encouraged to make it up where possible once you return to practice.

Please note: the Irish College of GPs can make a note on your record only where you are enrolled on the PCS year in question.

NB: Requirements for the current PCS year are 40 CPD credits and 1 clinical/practice audit

Under the Medical Council requirements, all registered doctors are obliged to enrol on a PCS annually and to meet the minimum requirements of 40 CPD credits and one clinical/practice audit, regardless of working status. Based on feedback received, the Irish College of GPs is aware that GPs working as locums, working in out of hours or doing sessional work may have specific challenges in fulfilling these requirements. 

Access advice on fulfilling your PCS requirements

NB: Requirements for the current PCS year are 40 CPD credits and 1 clinical/practice audit

Currently, retired GPs are required to achieve the same CPD and audit requirements set down for all doctors registered with the Irish Medical Council. The Irish College of GPs is aware of the challenges that can arise for doctors in this position and have developed a set of guidelines to assist retired GPs with meeting their requirements.

The Irish College of GPs runs a Retired and Semi-Retired GPs Discussion Group that takes place once a month (usually the second Friday of the month) in the ICGP offices at 4-5 Lincoln Place. Attendance at these meetings can be recorded for internal CPD credits with 1 hour of activity = 1 credit.

If you are acting in a professional advisory capacity, then the meetings relating to that role can also be recorded as internal credits. Likewise, you can record any meetings you might participate in to discuss medical legal cases. If you find yourself advising/mentoring younger colleagues, or people working in your former practice, this can be included where content is appropriate. A summary of the activity should be recorded as evidence.

You may also consider joining a relevant committee as a means of keeping up to date with general practice issues and as a way to contribute the benefit of your experience.

The Irish College of GPs is frequently approached for experienced GP input onto a wide range of State and Voluntary organisations. If you have an interest in this work, please Contact Us.

You could also form a journal club with other GPs. Articles read could be discussed, including how learning could be applied to real-life cases.

If you are an assessor or a board member or involved in another similar activity, you can record meetings for internal credits.

Likewise, your audit does not need to be a clinical audit. Rather, you should audit whatever activity you are currently engaged in. So, if you are involved in voluntary work related to your role as a doctor, you could do an audit around this, comparing your activity to best practice guidelines. This may also provide an option to link up with your former practice. A list of sample audit topics is available on www.icgp.ie/audit. 

NB: Requirements for the current PCS year are 40 CPD credits and 1 clinical/practice audit

While it is sometimes difficult for single-handed GPs to have internal practice meetings, any discussions you engage in with a pharmacist, counsellor, GP colleague or other health professional about patient care can still be recorded. This can include telephone discussions where relevant. Practice meetings with administration staff can also be recorded, as can any locum handover meetings.

You might also find it useful to get in touch with other single-handed GPs in your locality and set up a Clinical Club where you meet on a weekly or monthly basis to discuss cases. You could perhaps bring along and discuss a paper on some aspect pf primary care / general practice (e.g. Irish College of GPs Library Paper of The Month). Evidence to support this activity should include who the meeting/discussion was with, what date it took place, a brief summary of what was discussed and any reflections on practice as a result of the meeting.

Find out more about internal credits

Yes, all doctors need to enrol on a Professional Competence Scheme within 30 days of completing their training scheme, regardless of whether or not they are on leave. The only time that this does not apply is where they have removed their name from the Medical Council register.

All doctors on the Medical Council register must be either on a training scheme or enrolled on a Professional Competence Scheme. Once a doctor has enrolled, they will need to notify the ICGP so that their maternity leave can be noted on file.

If you are on maternity leave, sick leave or compassionate leave from active practice in excess of 3 months during a Professional Competence year you should Contact Us so that this can be noted on your Statement of Participation. 

Some suggested internal CPD activities include:

• CME Small Group: participation in a CME Small Group can be recorded for 2 internal and 2 external CPD credits
• Case presentation: presenting particular patient scenarios as a way of informing others about approaches to care/treatment. This can be a two-way process and include feedback on care or treatment regimes
• Clinical club: forming a club with other GP colleagues in your locality for regular clinical case discussions
• Clinical risk meeting input: for example, where a GP/GP practice develop a plan to deal with seasonal epidemics (e.g. influenza)
• Committee participation: the Irish College of GPs PCS committee has agreed that this can be recorded for 1 internal CPD credit per meeting (to a maximum of 6 per year)
• Journal club: You may know of other doctors on leave and you could form a journal club to discuss how you might apply topics to practice. These discussions can also take place via Skype
• Peer review group: where patient cases/issues/practice issues are presented to peers who provide comments and advice and suggest alternative approaches to care and treatment.
• Professional Development Plan (PDP)
• Quality improvement process: review of an approach to care/treatment, etc. and implementation of outcomes

If you are on maternity leave, sick leave or compassionate leave from active practice in excess of 3 months during a Professional Competence year you should Contact Us so that it can be noted on your Statement of Participation. 

If you are intending to leave Ireland for a short period of time (a year or less) to practice overseas, they you should enrol on an Irish professional competence scheme. You can record professional competence activities that you engage in while practicing overseas.

If you are overseas for a longer period of time, they you can participate in a professional competence scheme in the country where you are practicing. When completing your retention of registration form with the Medical Council, you will be required to declare that you are maintaining your professional competence in the country where you are practicing.

NB: If you intend to practice for 30 days or more in Ireland during a professional competence year (1 May-30 April), you should enrol on an Irish professional competence scheme.

You can find further information in relation to this on the Medical Council website.

Yes. All doctors registered with the Irish Medical Council retain the right to practice medicine and therefore have a legal obligation to maintain competence. Doctors retired from clinical practice who engage on behalf of Professional Bodies in mentoring, supervision of trainees, examining and other such activities that have direct impact on clinical activity should maintain their IMC registration.

If a doctor withdraws their name from the register voluntarily, they can retain the title of "Dr" and engage in college activities that have no direct impact on clinical activity such as fundraising etc.

If you are retired from active practice but wish to remain on the Medical Council register, we have prepared some guidelines to help you fulfil your PCS requirements.

If you have removed your name from the Medical Council register, please Contact Us so that we can update your record accordingly.

Sources of information: Medical Council and Irish College of GPs PCS Department

It is important that you engage with CPD on your return to practice. You could complete a Professional Development Plan to assist you with planning your learning needs and CPD for the PCS year, including meeting any shortfalls advised to you from previous PCS years.

Your engagement with CPD ensures that you are keeping your knowledge and skills up to date and this helps you to be as competent as possible in your role as a doctor. Equally, it is important to balance this with self-care and therefore if you are returning to practice after being out of the loop for a while, we recommend that you try and engage in CPD where possible but it is not to put yourself under unrealistic pressure to make up all shortfalls straight away. You should initially aim to meet the minimum requirements for the current PCS year and work on making up shortfalls once you have achieved this.

You may find the suggestions below useful in assisting you with this:

• External CPD: If getting out and about is an issue, (e.g. if you have young children or live in a rural area), online learning offers a great opportunity to achieve CPD without having to travel. You will find a range of eLearning modules on the Irish College of GPs website and these are available to members free of charge. You could also participate in our webinars.
• Internal CPD: You could consider forming a journal club with GP colleagues who are in a similar situation to discuss how you might apply topics to practice. These discussions can take place at a time and place that suits you or via an online conference system like Skype or Zoom. You can also record your Professional Development Plan for internal CPD credits where you discuss it with a colleague and add it to your ePortfolio before the 31^st of October.
• Audit: You could consider undertaking a quality improvement project such as a review of record keeping, updating practice software or carrying out a review of health and safety standards in the practice. You might also like to consider a patient survey as a useful quality improvement tool. Access a comprehensive list of audit samples 

NB: Requirements for the current PCS year are 40 CPD credits and 1 clinical/practice audit

Not all doctors see patients. Some doctors work in health and clinical service policy development and oversight roles, clinical leadership and management roles, medical advisory roles, medico-legal roles, education and training roles, and many more.

If you are doing work like this, you should confirm with the person or organisation for which you are filling this role that they require you to fulfill this role as a registered medical practitioner. If this is the case, you must maintain competence in line with your medical practice. You should engage in relevant maintenance of professional competence activities. If your role is entirely comprised of non-patient-facing services, the principles of audit can be applied to your professional practice as an improvement project. Doctors should contact their postgraduate training body for guidance and support.

Source of information: Medical Council

If a doctor is moving abroad, they should contact the ICGP so that this can be noted on their record. If the doctor has been or intends to be practicing in Ireland for 30 days or more in a PCS year, they are still required to enrol on an Irish PCS and meet the requirements here. If they have not been/do not intend to be practicing for 30 days or more, they can enrol on an equivalent Scheme in the country they are moving to. In this instance, doctors are not required to enrol on an Irish Scheme. If a doctor is meeting the Scheme requirements in the country where they are based, then they will also be meeting the Irish Scheme requirements by virtue of mutual recognition. Full information on PCS requirements for doctors practicing abroad is available on the Medical Council website.

If you will be practising outside Ireland for several years, you may wish to consider voluntary withdrawal from the Medical Council register.

If you are registered with the Irish Medical Council, intend to work 30 days or more in Ireland during a PCS year (1 May – 30 April annually) and meet one or more of the following criteria, you should enrol on the Irish College of GPs PCS:

• You are on the Specialist Division for General Practice
• You are on the General Division and working 50% or more of your practice time in General Practice
• You are a member of the Irish College of GPs

Join the Irish College of GPs PCS