Medical student places - Good news for health service

THE long overdue plan to more than double the number of medical students represents a significant step towards improving Ireland’s ailing health service.

A radical revamp of medical education and training is urgently needed. Yet, despite growing demands on the health service, the number of undergraduate places available for Irish and EU students has been capped at 305 since 1978.

Boosting the intake of hospital doctors and GPs to an over-stretched and under-staffed system will address a major weakness in the system.

The public will welcome the joint decision of the Ministers for Health and Education to increase the overall intake number of places from 305 to 725 over four years, including 180 school leavers and 240 graduate students.

This recognises the findings of the Fottrell and Buttimer reports which underline the need for more doctors and for the entry system to medicine to be radically changed.

After 2008, instead of being selected on CAO points alone, the bedside manner of aspiring candidates will also be assessed.

Hopefully, this will transform the way students gain entry to medical courses. It is vital to ensure that unsuitable candidates do not end up as GPs merely because they amassed enough CAO points to qualify for medical school, or because parents wanted their sons and daughters to be doctors.

As things stand, no account is taken of the overall suitability of candidates to work in a demanding profession where they would be dealing with intimate and sensitive issues of personal and public health. As a result, the wrong people sometimes become doctors.

Regrettably, while the overall plan deserves to be welcomed, it will be at least five years before the impact is seen in our hospitals.