The head of the CAO has described plans by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, to overhaul the medical training system as "cruder than originally envisaged", writes Kathryn Holmquist, Education Correspondent.
Dr Martin Newell's original proposals to the Points Commission were less radical than those now being considered by Mr Dempsey, although Dr Newell considered the proposals to be worthwhile and that "the Minister's heart is in the right place".
Dr Newell told The Irish Times: "There is here a golden opportunity to make a worthwhile difference with far-reaching implications. The great tragedy of Irish public service is that people who are in a position to make reforms too often take the 'I'm all right' view while paying lip-service to the need for improvement. It would be an enormous disservice to Irish young people if that were to happen here."
Mr Dempsey said on Tuesday that from 2005, students could take a wide range of undergraduate degrees before applying for post-graduate medical school.
According to Dr Newell, however, this would involve "quite a major upheaval in professional training programmes not to mention the nightmare of trying to select between graduates in different disciplines".
The original proposal by Dr Newell, who has been a member of the Points Commission and the Higher Education Authority, was to eliminate direct entry to medical school for Leaving Cert students by introducing a two-year health sciences course in institutes and universities, which could in itself lead on to a health sciences degree.
Following two years of the course, which would include work experience, students considering a career in any aspect of the health area would take a further examination for entry to professional training in medicine or other health care specialities.
This could be done without necessarily increasing the time and cost of health care training courses, Dr Newell said. It would take the pressure off all Leaving Cert students to score high points and could even eliminate the need for grind schools.
"School-leavers as young as 16 are being subjected to intense pressure in competing for entry to healthcare courses," Dr Newell added. "While such courses account for only 2 per cent of all third-level admissions, the pressures they generate could affect the entire Leaving Cert classes."
In Dr Newell's plan, health (or life) sciences degree courses would gradually become available in a variety of higher education institutions covering subjects such as anatomy, physiology, chemistry, biology, physics and appropriate applied studies.
Such courses would lead on to a variety of interesting careers. Students having completed two years of the certificate course would be eligible to compete for admission to professional training.
Competition would be done via a relevant nationally administered exam. Candidates would be required to have, say, two months of certified work experience in, for example, a nursing home.
Extra credit could be given for having completed more than two years of health sciences or for extra relevant experience or other qualifications. Successful candidates would proceed to intensive professional training.
"In the case of medicine, this would not involve any cataclysmic upheaval nor any transitional gap-year," Dr Newell said. "It mirrors closely what actually happens at present and would not increase the overall duration of training - two years of pre-clinical and four years of clinical study.
"The difference is that it formally decouples pre-clinical and clinical study and crucially, moves the career decision point from school-leaving stage to the point of entry to clinical study when more mature and informed choices can be made and where the basis of selection can be made more relevant," he added.
A side effect of the plan would be to increase the currently flagging interest in science.