Medical school: The president of University College Cork (UCC) and the head of its medical school have contacted the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, to express their alarm at plans to develop a stand-alone medical school at the University of Limerick. Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent, reports.
Professor Gerard Wrixon and Professor Eamonn Quigley have instead proposed the development of a Munster Medical School with separate teaching facilities in Limerick and Cork. The revamped UCC school would provide places for 150 students each year, 25 per cent of whom would be graduate entrants.
The news follows a report in last week's The Irish Times, in which Dr Paul Finucane, the director of medical school development at the University of Limerick (UL), said it was planning to open the state's first graduate school of medicine in 2006.
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 education.
In the letter to the Minister, dated September 14th, Professors Wrixon and Quigley outline a strategic plan for the future development of the UCC medical school.
"UCC medical school should serve the area of Munster and its primary goal should be to provide graduates to serve the population of this region... (It) would, in effect, become the Munster Medical School."
Pointing out that the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick has been a teaching hospital of UCC for many years, the letter states: "We propose a major clinical development at the Regional Hospital site in Limerick... our new plan envisages the development of a clinical science building in the Dooradoyle site to permit the delivery of the entire clinical curriculum during years three, four and five at this location. Our current estimates suggest that 150 students would be located in Limerick at any given time, accompanied by academic, educational and support appointments."
Prof Quigley, who is also professor of medicine and human physiology at UCC, said the university needed access to all clinical teaching facilities in Munster, including those in Limerick.
"If we were to cease to have access to these facilities, then our development plan cannot go ahead," he told The Irish Times.
He confirmed that between 30 and 50 entrants to the new Munster Medical School each year would be graduates and that places would also be set aside for those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Asked whether UCC had considered developing a stand-alone graduate medical school, Prof Quigley said: "We debated the possibility of two separate streams at length but when we costed this, it became extraordinarily expensive."
He also said that an intensive four- year graduate-only programme had the potential to put non-science graduates at a disadvantage.
Prof Quigley said that a new two-year pre-clinical teaching programme, incorporating patient contact from day one, will be introduced at UCC next September.
"A curriculum group is now working on changes for the third, fourth and fifth medical years, which will be introduced in 2007."
Spelling out their opposition to UL's plans, the UCC academics told the Minister that "the development of a separate medical school in Limerick will require the development of new departments and new facilities at much greater expense than would be required to develop already existing facilities in UCC".
"It seems more prudent to us to develop and expand an existing programme rather than develop a new programme which will diminish the likelihood for success for either," they concluded.