Madam, – Further to Dr Chris Luke’s letter (June 9th), I was reminded of a young South African physiotherapist I met approximately two years ago. South Africa, according to her, had a similar brain drain/recruitment shortage in the medical professions. As soon students obtained a qualification, they did their level best to leave South Africa as quickly as possible to work somewhere more to their liking.
The South African solution was, according to my acquaintance, very simple. After finishing their training, they were required to spend one year doing public service before actually graduating. Thus, the newly-trained doctor, nurse, or physiotherapist would not be able to document their qualification, and by extension seek employment, outside of South Africa until after completing their public service.
While not by any means a perfect solution, this approach ensures, for the health service in Ireland, as in South Africa, some payback for the vast expense of training a doctor, nurse, physiotherapist or other health professional. Given the annual non-EU student fees of €31,000 for medicine – which presumably reflects the full economic cost of educating a doctor – one year’s public service obligation does not seem an overly onerous obligation to place on Irish medical students who receive this education for almost nothing. – Yours, etc,