Health Minister Stephen Donnelly privately blasted the shortfall of extra places on medicine courses for this academic year, the Irish Examiner reported this morning.
However, the Department of Higher Education said that Donnelly’s request for an additional 200 places – with just a few months’ notice – was unfeasible for a number of reasons.
Email exchanges between the Department of Health and the Department of Further and Higher Education revealed Donnelly was “not happy” with the shortage of medicine places in colleges for the 2021/22 academic year.
Just three additional places were created for this academic year, according to the emails.
One email from the Department of Health to the Department of Further and Higher Education said: “An increase of three places in 2021/22 is not adequate to meet future health workforce needs. Please clarify what actions are being taken by your department to address this issue.”
The Department of Higher Education said that the desired provision of 200 places was unrealistic. “Given physical constraints of the higher education institutions and their staffing requirements it doesn’t seem that there would be any potential to increase the overall number of places by the scale suggested”, one email said.
Officials also said that replacing spaces for non-EU students with domestic ones would create its own challenges due to the higher fees paid by the former. Such a move would have to be discussed with the Department of Public Expenditure, they said.
The Higher Education Department also said there was a shortage of laboratory space available in colleges to cater for additional students. It also raised the issue of extra clinical placements which would be required alongside additional places on medical courses. Both of these issues were then compounded by a shortage of staff to cater for these students. Solving these issues would take “required lead time” and “significant planning” that could not be completed in time for the 2021/22 academic year.
A spokesman for the Department of Higher Education told the Examiner that the department had began “detailed work last year with both the higher education sector and the Department of Health in order to increase medicine places in 2022”.
“Engagement with the university sector has taken place at the highest level to secure additional provision and good progress has been achieved. An update on expanded places will be available shortly.”
