Cosmetic Surgery Ireland Medical Qualifications & Associations
With any surgery or medical procedure it is difficult for us to know the meaning of qualifications. For most of us our contact with the medical profession is thankfully limited to tripping round to see our GP from time to time and then going to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription. So how would we know the meaning of the strings of initials. It is time they were demystified. At the moment they are like a secret code for one up man ship amongst medical professionals.So on this page I intend to put qualifications and the route to them as I find them. So you need to understand that is how I am working and it may take a while before they are all on here for you. At the moment I am focusing on Irish qualifications.
Under the Medical Practitioners Act, 1978, Section 69(2) doctors were given the privilege of regulating their own professional affairs through the Medical Council.
Medical Education and Training of Doctors under The Irish Medical Council
Only the ‘swottiest’ students get to study medicine in Ireland as the number of points required in the Irish Leaving Certificate for entry to university lies between 570 and 590 and the points must be achieved in one sitting of the exam. Subjects taken at Leaving Certificate must include various combinations of physics, chemistry, biology, agricultural science and mathematics. The undergraduate course takes five years and on successful completion, dependent on which course followed, one of the the following degrees will be conferred:
M.B. (Bachelor in Medicine)
B.Ch. (Bachelor in Surgery)
B.A.O. (Bachelor in Obstetrics)
After 5 years study they are then required to spend one more year in service as resident house officer, or more commonly referred to as ‘interns’, in an approved hospital before apply to the Irish Medical Council to be placed on the register of doctors. I've made a short film explaining this which you can watch here:
Training as a Doctor in Ireland & Becoming Competent For Registration
There is a new route into medical training through the Graduate Medical Schools Admission test which is known as GAMSAT. There is an interesting article on developments in the training of medical doctors here.
Becoming a General practitioner in Ireland
The Irish College General Practitioners (ICGP) is the professional body for general practice and is recognised by the Medical Council and the Postgraduate Medical and Dental Board as the representative academic body in the specialty of general practice.
Training as a Plastic Surgeon
Near completion of Basic Surgical Training (BST) an application can be made for a place on the Higher Surgical Training (HST) in Plastic Surgery. If accepted then on receipt of their Certificate of Completion of Basic Surgical Training (CCBST) from of one of the Surgical Royal Colleges of Great Britain and Ireland the student can commence the HST provided they have registered with the Irish Medical Council and other EU medical regulatory registration bodies. I wrote about these qualifications at length under a paragraph entitled "So how qualified is a particular surgeon?" at the Home Page.
The Irish Association of Plastic Surgeons
The IAPS is based at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and is the professional representative body for plastic and reconstructive surgeons in the Republic of Ireland. The Association is the body charged with the training of new doctors following a career in plastic surgery.
There is an Irish Hospitals Consultants Association and their website is a terrific resource for finding consultants throughout Ireland in all branches of medicine. There is a useful article on how to get an appointment with a consultant.
The letters MRCSI indicate a surgeon in training who has achieved a level of generic surgical competencies that enable them to successfully undertake specialist training.
LRCPI Licentiate Royal College of Physicians of Ireland
LRCSI Licentiate Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland
EYES Ophthalmology Route to Qualifications
BST training for eyes happens on at the following hospitals:
Dublin South Hospitals - Saint Vincents, RVEEH and Crumlin
Dublin North Hospitals - The Mater, Beaumont and Temple Street
Regional hospitals of Cork, Galway, Limerick and Waterford
After completing BST they can take Route A:
in medical ophthalmology. Entered on Register of Medical Specialists in Ophthalmology by the Medical Council and are called Medical Eye Specialists and in the public sector you may know them as Community Ophthalmic Physicians.
or they can take Route B:
Can now put FRCSI after their name.
I've written in a lot more detail on this training over here.
Associations for Eye Surgeons
I found some information on a link from BOPSS mentioning a qualification that applies to UK ophthalmology students and put it in because you could easily be treated by a UK surgeon. It is about Advanced Sub-Specialty Training Opportunities (ASTOs) and Fellowships. You can read more about it by clicking ASTOs.
If you need to find people who lead in this field then you may like to trawl through this pdf from an scientific congress in May 2007. Too long a go? They will be even more qualified now. Click here to read it.
I found an interesting site for those of you who love to feast on eye surgery and eye related matters. So it is eye candy of another sort and is at Ophthalmology Web.
If you are thinking of having Lasik eye surgery where the ItraLase femtosecond laser is used you can read up on the intralase Technology Certificationwhich your surgeon can complete and also training for his support staff at Intralase Technician Certification.
Ear Nose and Throat
I found this organisation called the International Federation Oto Rhino Laryngological Societies (IFOS)which is a non-political organization representing over 50,000 Otolaryngologists belonging to about 120 member nations. Ireland has the Irish Otolaryngological Society and I am not sure that the society participates in IFOS or not. It might be a useful site if you are thinking of having surgery abroad in the head and neck area.
Another acronym to add to the qualifications list is DLO - Diploma in Laryngology and Otology.
I cannot find a website for the Irish Otolaryngological or Otolaryngology Society but did track down some information on individual surgeons which you can read about over at Rhinoplasty Surgeons.
This site is a work in progress and may not answer all your questions just yet. If you get impatient and need to translate an acronym in a hurry then trip over to a University of Nottingham list by clicking here.
© N.Kiernan August 2008
