Before you start work in Ireland

From registering with the Medical Council to immunisations to medical protection, there are lots of things you will need to organise or think about before your first day at work. If you are coming to Ireland for the first time, you should also see our Moving to Ireland page for more guidance about the requirements you will have to meet.

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Checks and steps before your first day

Prior to taking up a post in Ireland your employer will require the following:

  • Evidence of Registration with the Irish Medical Council
  • Satisfactory police vetting (your Medical Manpower Department will seek this and should uploaded a copy to your NER account)
  • Two references (one of which must be from the most recent supervising consultant or employer). Your employer may seek these directly or request you to provide them
  • Confirmation of completion of Pre- employment Health Assessment
  • A valid English language certification (if applicable), which should be uploaded to the correct section of your NER account
  • Evidence of the required visa to work in Ireland (where applicable)
  • Signed acceptance of post offered

Prior to taking up post you should:

  • Create a National Employment Record (NER) account, complete all relevant sections and upload documents as require eg.:
    • The NER hire form
    • Occupational health questionnaire and supporting documentation (if necessary)
    • Up-to-date curriculum vitae
    • Evidence of qualifications and certificates
    • English language test results (if applicable)
  • Have a valid work permit (if applicable), which should be uploaded to the correct section of your NER account
  • Have received a copy of the national agreed contract of employment for NCHDs, to be signed by you and your employer. The contract will included details such as:
    • Start date / end date
    • Role
    • Leave entitlements
    • Other entitlements eg. Training Supports,
    • Pay details including salary and other payments
    • Clinical Indemnity Scheme
    • Policies and information.
  • Receive communication from your employer with details of who you should contact on day one and at what time you should attend.

If you are moving to Ireland for the first time, you should also ensure you have:

  • Accommodation
  • An Irish bank account
  • An Irish mobile phone
  • A personal public service (PPS) number
  • An active Revenue myAccount (if you have not worked in Ireland before, register your first employment by selecting ‘Update Job and Pension details’ in myAccount)
  • Attended the local immigration office to ensure you have the correct immigration permission/stamp.

See more about the requirements for doctors coming to work in Ireland from abroad.

Induction checklist

You should receive a full induction 24 to 48 hours before your start date.
During this induction, you should have:

  • Received your personnel number
  • Received your identity badge
  • Received and signed your contract (with review of pay scale)
  • Met your assigned line manager or supervising consultant
  • Received technology login details and operating skills in:
    • Radiology
    • Access and use of systems to order tests (for example, the laboratory)
    • Local electronic patient record (EPR) or online medical record repositories
    • Discharge summary
    • Handover systems, where available
    • Pharmacy systems, where available
  • Received a work email address
  • Received library access
  • Received a site tour of NCHD facilities including rest space, on-call rooms, administrative area, lockers, canteens, educational space, etc.
  • Received specific information such as:
    • Indemnity systems and coverage
    • Haemovigilance
    • Local cardiac arrest procedures and training schedule
    • Coroners contact and local policies
  • Access to scrubs
  • Met other team members and department colleagues, such as educational leads and administrators, Medical Manpower Department manager, and NCHD support officers
  • Received a schedule of teaching:
    • Further induction programmes and dates
    • Weekly hospital-wide conferences
    • Research, audit, and quality improvement (QI) resources and support

More information about employment requirements

The following information is for all doctors, regardless of whether they are already based in Ireland or are coming here for the first time to continue their training.

The Medical Council

The Medical Council regulates medical doctors in the Republic of Ireland. The council’s purpose is to protect the public by promoting and ensuring high standards of professional conduct and professional education, training, and competence among doctors.

The council’s key responsibilities include:

  • Maintaining the Register of Medical Practitioners, which anyone can consult to see if their doctor is registered to legally work in Ireland.
  • Ensuring the highest standards of medical training and education in the Republic of Ireland.
  • Promoting good medical practice and overseeing doctors’ continuing professional development.
  • Investigating complaints against medical doctors.

All doctors working in Ireland must register with the Medical Council before commencing employment by applying to one of the four divisions:

  • General registration
  • Specialist registration
  • Trainee registration
  • Supervised registration
  • The division of the register you are eligible to apply for will depend on where you qualified and what training you have completed. The final decision in granting registration to a doctor is decided by the Medical Council.

Learn more about registration and check your eligibility.

 

Professional competence scheme

Doctors granted specialist, general, or supervised registration by the Medical Council are legally obliged to maintain their professional competence by enrolling in a professional competence scheme (PCS) and meeting the requirements set by the Medical Council.

If you are on the register and practising for more than 30 days a year in Ireland, you must enrol in a PCS, engage in continuous professional development (CPD) activity, and maintain documentation relating to this activity. The PCS year runs from 1st May to 30th April annually.

Postgraduate medical training bodies operate professional competence schemes on behalf of the Medical Council. Doctors are required to enrol in the professional competence scheme most relevant to their scope of practice.

Learn more about the continuous professional support scheme (CPD-SS) for funding supports provided by the HSE and professional competence schemes.

Police vetting/Garda vetting

All doctors in Ireland must be police vetted before commencing their employment. You will not be able to start working until the HSE can confirm that your appointment does not pose a risk to clients, service users, or employees. An Garda Síochána is the national police service in Ireland and responsible for issuing police clearance (often called Garda vetting) through the National Vetting Bureau for anyone living in Ireland.

If you have only lived in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland

The process of being police vetted involves disclosing any convictions, probation, or community service you have received for crimes or infractions including driving offences, non-payment of a TV licence, and public order offences in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland.

Your Medical Manpower Department makes the request to the National Vetting Bureau once you have completed the necessary paperwork. Once your police vetting disclosure has been issued, the Medical Manpower Department will upload this to your National Employment Record (NER) account, where you will be able to view it.

Learn more about police vetting in Ireland.

If you have lived abroad for more than six months

If you have lived outside of Ireland for more than six months since becoming an adult, you will also need security clearance for each legal jurisdiction you have resided in. This clearance should state that you have no convictions recorded. It must be dated after you stopped living in the jurisdiction and cover the entire period you lived there. Seeking security clearance from other countries is your responsibility. To find out how to obtain security clearance from other countries, you should contact their respective embassies. Some links to get you started are below:

Pre-employment screening

A pre-placement health assessment is carried out by the occupational health service to ensure you are physically and mentally fit to do your job. The assessment involves a questionnaire and, if necessary, a medical consultation. You will be sent a screening questionnaire during the application process. You must disclose any underlying health conditions and provide relevant immunisation details – if you give false information, your application may get rejected or your contract may be affected.

Depending on your medical history, or the work you will be doing, you may also be asked to:

  • provide a report from your general practitioner (GP)
  • provide a report from a medical specialist
  • attend a medical assessment with the occupational health doctor

Immunisation screening and vaccinations

Immunisation screening ensures you have adequate protection against certain infectious diseases. This is to safeguard your health and the health of service users. An immunisation form will be uploaded to NER by your occupational health department. The immunisation screening and vaccinations you will be asked for depends on the risk assessment of your job and will differ for each role.

You can contact the occupational health service to arrange vaccinations (this can be done after you have started working). Prospective employees are requested to submit evidence of previous immunisation. This will not hold up the pre-placement assessment process unless the post requires exposure prone procedures (EPP) certification.

Immunisation evidence is usually required for:

  • BCG or evidence of immunity to tuberculosis (TB)
  • Hepatitis B antibodies
  • Varicella
  • Measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR)
  • Learn more about immunisation guidelines in Ireland.

Exposure prone procedure (EPP) clearance

Exposure prone procedures (EPP) are medical processes where an injured healthcare worker could potentially contaminate a patient’s open tissues with their blood, leading to the risk of blood borne virus (BBV) transmission. This term covers a range of scenarios, one example being a procedure where a gloved hand inside a patient’s open body cavity or wound comes into contact with needle tips, sharp instruments, bone, or teeth.

In some fields – for example, surgery – the hands or fingertips of the healthcare worker may not be always completely visible, meaning that injury is not noticed and acted upon immediately. To mitigate risk during these procedures, EPP healthcare workers must have EPP certification or evidence of relevant blood test results from an identified validated sample (IVS). If you do not have one of these, you must attend the occupational health service for IVS bloods.

For your blood sample to be validated, you will need to bring a passport or driving licence for identification. The document will be photocopied and signed by the clinician taking the blood. Your recruitment contact will advise you if your role requires EPP clearance. If it does, you will not be cleared for work until the blood test results are available.

Learn more about pre-placement health assessments.

Clinical Indemnity Scheme & Medical Protection benefits

The Clinical Indemnity Scheme (CIS), operated by the State Claims Agency, provides doctors with cover for clinical negligence claims that occur in public hospitals and HSE facilities. However, complaints to the Medical Council, police (Garda) inquiries, and disciplinary hearings are not covered and could leave doctors facing such situations on their own.

Medical Protection – a member-owned, not-for-profit protection organisation for doctors, dentists, and healthcare professionals – offers members assistance with a wide range of legal and ethical problems that can arise from professional practice.

Learn more about state indemnity and Medical Protection.

The National Employment Record (NER)

The National Employment Record (NER) is an online service that minimises repetitive paperwork for NCHDs and eliminates as much duplication as possible when rotating within the Irish health system.

Learn more about using the NER.

Safe Start guide

The Safe Start guide, developed by the Medical Council, will help you understand the general requirements when practising medicine in Ireland and how to deal with some common clinical practise scenarios that may arise during your employment. We advise reviewing this guide before you commence employment.

Download Safe Start (PDF)

HSE Employee Handbook

The Employee Handbook, created by the HSE, provides comprehensive information about employee services and policies and is invaluable for both new and existing employees of the health service.

Learn more and download the latest version.