Dublin: Ireland Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, the son of a Mumbai-born physician Ashok Varadkar, has re-registered as a medical practitioner and will treat patients amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Varadkar worked as a doctor for seven years before leaving the profession to become a politician and was removed from the medical register in 2013, reported Reuters. He rejoined the medical register in March, and offered his services to the country’s Health Service Executive for one session a week in areas that are within his scope of practice, a spokesman for his office said.
“Many of his family and friends are working in the health service. He wanted to help out even in a small way,” the spokesman told Reuters.
According to a report in the Irish Times, Varadkar is helping out with phone assessments. Anybody who may have been exposed to the virus is initially assessed over the phone.
Varadkar comes from a medical family. His mother is a nurse and his partner Matthew Barrett is a physician. His two sisters and their husbands also work in health care.
