Limerick: The University of Limerick is planning to open the first graduate school of medicine in the State in 2006.
Dr Paul Finucane, the newly appointed director of medical school development at the university, said it could have its first student intake in 2006, "if we got the green light soon" from the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey.
Mr Dempsey recently signalled his approval of a report from the Committee on the Future of Medical Education advising he adopt a graduate as well as an undergraduate stream for entry into medical school.
The committee, under the chairmanship of Prof Pat Fottrell of the NUI, Galway, has recommended that both graduates and second-level students sit an internationally recognised aptitude test, after which applicants will be ranked for entry to medicine. All Leaving Cert students who achieved 450 points or more and any honours degree graduate of any discipline would be eligible to sit the aptitude test.
"The University of Limerick sees a medical school as a logical step that would build on what already exists here," Dr Finucane said. The university already has a department of nursing and has begun training occupational therapists, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists in the past two years. Teaching facilities already in place for these students could be quickly developed to provide the necessary infrastructure for a medical school.
A number of doctors working in the Mid Western Health Board have already been appointed adjunct professors at the University of Limerick. They include Mr Pierce Grace, consultant surgeon at Limerick Regional Hospital, and Dr Declan Lyons, consultant geriatrician in the region.
Dr Finucane said he envisaged the graduate medical school in Limerick would take in 80 to 100 students each year. He confirmed the course would last four years and would provide "a different kind of educational experience" from the five established undergraduate medical schools in the State.
"There will be a strong emphasis on small group and problem-based learning," he said. And, in a significant change from the current emphasis in medical education, Dr Finucane said students would spend at least one year in general practice. "Clinical skills will be more explicit in the curriculum and, with too many students and too few patients in hospitals, we will focus on learning in primary care."
Dr Finucane, who was formally assistant dean with responsibility for post-graduate medical education at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia, said it was the experience there that medical students "flourished" when taught in the community.