Professor warns against medical course restrictions

YOUNG people will leave Ireland to become doctors and poorer students will be further ruled out of the profession, if Government restrictions on entry to medicine courses go ahead, an expert has warned.

Education Minister Noel Dempsey and Health Minister Micheál Martin set up a working group last September to examine the possibility of making medicine and other health science courses open only to graduates. The plan aims to reduce pressure on school leavers needing top grades in their Leaving Certificate for entry to these courses.

Such a move would be more counterproductive than beneficial, former dean of medicine at University College Cork Prof William Hall told medical, dental and nursing graduates yesterday. “Those who believe it would produce a better social balance among medical students are wrong. Only well-off families can afford to keep their children in third-level for the additional three or four years that graduate entry would require.”

Fees for postgraduate courses are not paid for by the State, although the working group might recommend a change to this situation as part of their review of medical training. “Graduate entry could also lead to an exodus of our best students to Britain, where direct entry from school is the norm. With air travel to most British cities now cheaper than from Cork to Dublin, the present trickle of students could grow and become a matter of national concern,” said Prof Hall. He suggested a mix of school leavers and graduates should be allowed to enter medicine courses and each candidate’s fitness to be a doctor should be evaluated in terms of academic performance and personal qualities. He said places should be reserved for applicants from low income families, rather than overseas students on whom medical schools rely heavily for financial support.

Almost 330 people began medicine courses at four Irish universities and the Royal College of Surgeons last year. The other courses for which graduate entry restrictions are planned include dentistry, veterinary medicine and pharmacy.

Announcing the proposals last August, Mr Dempsey said he intended that the final intake to undergraduate medicine courses would take place this autumn. But a spokesperson for the minister last night said this will now be decided based on the working group’s report, expected to be completed by September.