A RADICAL overhaul of medical education is expected to follow a recommendation from the Medical Council that the "pre-med" year should be abolished and the medical degree course reduced from six years to five, in line with other European countries. A UCC proposal to this effect will go before the April meeting of the Senate off the National University of Ireland.
In a document to be released next week, the Medical Council's education committee also proposes "radical reform" of the undergraduate medical curriculum, reducing the "factual overload" on students and providing for a project based approach with more emphasis on continuous assess- meat than written examinations.
The committee is also concerned with the "inadequate supervision", "onerous duty rosters" and general lack of training and education for newly graduated doctors in their compulsory one year hospital intern year.
Meanwhile, medical and educational bodies have been invited by the Department of Health to a consultative conference in Limerick later this week to discuss medical manpower issues.
The Medical Council proposals have resulted from widespread concern about the need to modernise training. Its concern about the training of interns is backed by the Irish Medical Organisation, which is negotiating with the Department of Health to have training time periods included in work rosters. "Interns are often just treated as `gofers' and are asked to accept responsibilities for which they are not trained", says Dr Doiminic O Brannagain, chairman of the IMO's non consultant hospital doctors' committee.
According to the IMO, dissatisfaction at postgraduate level with the training structure for those studying to become specialists has been exacerbated by the small number of consultant positions available. The Limerick conference will consider recommendations for an increase in the number of consultants.
The conference is a follow up to the Tierney report on medical manpower and comes in the wake of a statement by the Minister for Health, Mr Noonan, that "the continued provision of the bulk of hospital care by doctors in training cannot continue".