Additional places on university courses for those intending to become speech and language or physiotherapists are to come on stream in September, it has been announced.
The Department of Further and Higher Education said on Friday the move was part of a plan to increase the number of places across a range of courses in the healthcare area by 35 per cent over two years.
The move will involve expanded intakes next month to speech and language therapy, occupational therapy and podiatric medicine programmes at University of Galway as well as physiotherapy in Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI).
A new undergraduate Occupational Therapy programme is also to be initiated at the University of Limerick. Funding for the expansion was approved by the Government in July, the department said. The plan also provides for greater collaboration between universities and the HSE.
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“Increasing our future supply of health professionals to meet the needs of our health service is a key priority for me and this Government,” said Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly.
“Last year we delivered significant expansion in healthcare places, with over 460 additional student places being provided in medicine, nursing and midwifery, and other key healthcare courses in Higher Education Institutions in Ireland [but] it is clear that we need to go much further.
“The planned student expansion in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy, is a welcome development and we expect to be announcing additional places in respect of other disciplines in the near future.”
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