Renewing & Enrolling on the PCS

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

No. All registered medical practitioners are required to enrol on a Professional Competence Scheme (PCS) and meet the annual minimum requirement of 1 clinical/practice audit and 50 CPD credits (including the minimum requirements in each credit category). This applies for all doctors, regardless of working status.

If a doctor is registered on the General Division of the Register they should contact their Postgraduate Training Body to begin the process of enrolling in a Professional Competence Scheme.

If the doctor is not aligned with a Postgraduate Training Body (PGTB), they should contact the PGTB which they feel is most appropriate to their area of practice to begin the process of enrolling in a Professional Competence Scheme.

A doctor on the General Division who is not aligned to a PGTB should not be concerned that they will be unable to enrol in a professional competence scheme. The range of schemes established by PGTBs under arrangement with the Medical Council mean that there are schemes that are accessible to all doctors. 

Source: Medical Council

If a doctor is registered on the Specialist Division of the Register, they should contact their Postgraduate Training Body to begin the process of enrolment with a Professional Competence Scheme.

If the doctor is not aligned with a Postgraduate Training Body (PGTB), they should contact the PGTB which they feel is most appropriate to the Specialist Division in which they are registered. 

Some doctors no longer practice in the area of initial specialisation e.g. on Specialist Division in General Practice but now working in Voluntary Sector (ICHMT General Division PCS best applies). But at present, there is no mechanism to change IMC registration from Specialist to General Division and mostly practitioner prefers to remain on Specialist Division. These doctors should enrol in their Specialist Division PCS and their training body will facilitate maintenance of credits referable to their present scope of practice.

Source: Medical Council

When you are completing your annual Retention of Registration form with the Medical Council, you will be asked to give the name of the Professional Competence Scheme (PCS) on which you are enrolled and the date on which you paid your enrolment fee for that year.

The Irish College of GPs, through our arrangements with the Medical Council, are required to forward a list of the MCRN for all doctors enrolled on a Scheme at key dates throughout the year.

No, if you are currently on a recognised Training Scheme, then you do not need to enrol on PCS as engagement in training is considered continuous professional development. You should enrol on a PCS within 30 days of completion of your Training.

Where you have been accepted to a Training Scheme for July, you should enrol on a PCS for that particular year by Contacting Us.

Your fee for the year will be waived and your enrolment will cover you from 1st May to 31st July of the year in question.

All doctors working in Ireland for 30 days or more in a PCS year are obliged to enrol on an Irish PCS; this includes doctors remote consulting with patients based in Ireland.

Please click on the links below to access Irish Medical Council guidelines on remote consulting:

• https://www.medicalcouncil.ie/news-and-publications/publications/
• https://www.medicalcouncil.ie/public-information/telemedicine-phone-and-video-consultations-guide-for-doctors/

Irish professional competence schemes run from 1 May to 30 April annually. All doctors registered with the Irish Medical Council (IMC) and practising in Ireland are legally obliged to enrol on a scheme each year, regardless of working status. If a doctor was enrolled on a previous PCS year but has not yet enrolled on the current one, then they are not considered to be enrolled on a PCS.

An easy way to ensure automatic annual enrolment is to set up a direct debit with the ICGP. For more information on this, please Contact Us.

If you are unsure whether or not you are enrolled, you can check your ePortfolio. If you can access it, then you have enrolled on the current PCS year. If not, you will need to enrol through our Renew & Enrol section.

Your proof of enrolment on the current year of the scheme is your receipt, which is available to download from your ePortfolio as follows:

1. Visit PCS ePortfolio 
2. Select 'Access ePortfolio'
3. Click on the 'download receipt' option on the left of the page. (NB: if you are paying by Direct Debit, your receipt will not be available to download until the fee has been debited from your account).