Medical students have reported that their lecturers did not turn up for 30 per cent of their teaching sessions in Irish medical schools last year.
Their absence was mainly as a result of "clinical commitments", according to a report to be published today.
The report, compiled by DKM Economic Consultants Ltd for the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children, said "this situation is likely to deteriorate with the coming into effect of the European Working Time Directive".
Under the directive, the working hours of junior doctors will have to be cut to an average of 58 hours a week from the beginning of next month. This is likely to put more pressure on hospital consultants, leaving them with less time for teaching. The consultants' report, Restrictive Practices in Medical Training in Ireland, says teaching times in teaching hospitals are also curtailed by increasing pressures on teaching staff.
Looking at restrictive practices in the profession, it said places in medical schools in the Republic were capped at 305 a year for Irish/EU students, while the numbers of non-EU students continued to increase.
Some 516 non-EU students entered Irish medical schools in 2003 and their entry requirements are "less rigorous". Their numbers have not been curtailed because of the high fees they pay, which props up the schools. Last year, for example, the schools' average income from each non-EU student was €25,000 compared to €9,000 from EU students. But the report points out that "a large proportion of overseas graduates return to their home countries . . . leaving the Irish market undersupplied". It states that to comply with the Hanly report and the European Working Time Directive, more Irish/EU doctors will have to be trained.
The report recommends:
that restrictions on numbers of places for all courses in the medical sciences should be removed immediately;
the number of Irish/EU places in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy be increased substantially and doubled in some disciplines;
the dependence of Irish medical schools on income from non-EU students needs to be urgently addressed.
The report's recommendations were adopted by the Oireachtas committee when it met yesterday.