Irish Medical Times Medical News for Healthcare Professionals
The Medical Council has identified a committee of experienced assessors set to conduct the proposed accreditation visit of RCSI-Bahrain later this year, IMT understands.
Nabeel Rajab
The news emerges as human rights defender Nabeel Rajab, who has been released by the Bahraini regime after two years in prison, came to Ireland last week.
Medical Council CEO Caroline Spillane told this publication: “We do intend to visit Bahrain before year-end and we have done a piece of work to identify an accreditation team.”
She said the selection process was consistent with that used in previous years, with the committee comprising both Council representatives and appointees from a pool of independent assessors, all of whom had undertaken activity of this nature for the regulatory body in previous years.
“That pool of assessors has a mix of medics and lay membership, but all of them have expertise in the area of medical education and training,” she added. “It will be an experienced team because we have come to the end of a wave of accreditations that the Medical Council has done.”
Responding to human rights concerns in the Kingdom of Bahrain and related calls for the medical regulatory body to refrain from accrediting RSCI-Bahrain, Spillane advised the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection in April that globally recognised standards were used in accreditation in line with the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 and Medical Council rules (IMT 11.04.14).
How the Council will ensure the visit of RCSI-Bahrain — accused of using training hospitals that have allegedly breached human rights, which the College denied — will be independent was one of the concerns raised in the Oireachtas by Irish Lawyers for Human Rights, Ceartas, which has urged the regulatory body to reject Bahrain accreditation.
lloyd.mudiwa@imt.ie
