Aspiring medical students got a €200 million boost today with the news the Government is set to revamp medical education and training.
Under the new scheme, undergraduate medical places for Irish and EU students will be more than doubled to 725. The figure has been capped at 305 since 1978. A new graduate entry programme will also be established from 2007.
The reforms were announced today by the Minister for Health, Mary Harney, and the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin.
Students will start to see the benefits from as early as this autumn, with €4 million provided for an extra 70 places for EU medical students.
Labour spokeswoman on health, Liz McManus, welcomed the news but said the increase of 70 places for 2006 was disappointing. "It takes 10 years to grow a doctor," she said. " The rate of reform of medical training - now that the Government has agreed to it in principle - needs to happen much more rapidly."
Ms Mcmanus was also critical of the timsetable for the planned graduate programme. "I support the new graduate entry programme but it is again disappointing that it will be the end of 2007 before that will happen," she said. "Minister Harney stated at the Joint Committee on Health and Children that she did want to ensure more medical places by September 2005 so it is clear that she is already behind her own timetable."
The ministers also plan to change the way students gain entry to medical courses, with the development of a new aptitude test and proposals to change to the current CAO selection method to a combination of CAO points and suitability test performance from 2008.
Problem areas such as retaining graduates and ensuring the numbers of doctors in training match projected consultant vacancies are also being addressed.
"Irish doctors have enjoyed a long-standing international reputation for excellence," said Ms Hanafin."It is imperative that our education and training system is sufficiently resourced and developed to maintain that reputation for quality as we seek to meet the significant demands of the future. It is essential that it responds to the manpower needs of a health system that is itself undergoing significant reform and development."
