The mismatch between the number of medical students being trained in Ireland and the availability of intern posts in the Republic’s hospitals is yet another example of the failure adequately to administer the health service. It also reflects poorly on the university sector, which, in a bid to increase its revenue stream, has progressively recruited a greater number of non-EU students to medical schools here.
Following graduation, medical students are not permitted freely to practise medicine. Rather they are provisionally licensed by medical regulators and must practise under supervision for one year. It is widely acknowledged that their basic medical education is incomplete until they have been “signed off” post-internship. To change the rules mid-degree and deny international students access to the intern year is unacceptable.
At the same time, junior doctors must practise in a quality environment that prioritises patient safety. However a recent Medical Council fitness to practise inquiry illustrated how the Health Service Executive (HSE) continues to pay lip service to the basic task of ensuring a doctor's competence. Dr Omar Hassan Khalafalla, a surgical house officer, was found guilty of 28 counts of poor professional performance. It emerged he had been able to move from posts in one part of the public system to another despite questions being raised about Dr Hassan's performance by colleagues in a number of hospitals.
Within days of commencing work at the Midlands General Hospital in Portlaoise in July 2012 Dr Hassan had to be removed from on-call duties due to concerns about his professional performance.
Subsequently employed by Mayo General Hospital, he was again removed from on-call duties “pending the conclusion of his employment arising from concerns relating to a clinical incident”. A similar experience at University Hospital Galway eventually led to him being reported to the Medical Council.
Such a cavalier approach to patient safety by three acute public hospitals in the State shows yet again how the HSE continues to fail patients in the most fundamental way.