Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Earlier this week the Irish Pharmacy Union, IPU, warned that a growing shortage of pharmacists is fast becoming a major threat to community healthcare. It now takes an average of five months to fill a vacant position in pharmacies. It called on the Government to increase the number of third level places. It referred to the chronic lack of university places. It is the same with regard to medicine places as we have said. We have seen staff shortages in the HSE and a crisis with GPs, particularly in rural areas. Any increase in medicine has been excruciatingly slow. Again this morning we saw a backlog in Mayo University Hospital. Staff are run off their feet. We see with doctors and out-of-hour services that the pressure is immense, particularly in rural communities. This could be rectified immediately by purchasing places that would otherwise be allocated to high fee-paying international students. Half of all of the places allocated are to fee-paying international students. It is very healthy to have a mix of international students but they are more likely to be mobile and to return home. We need to educate a workforce who will stay here and service all of these rural areas and hospitals such as Mayo University Hospital.

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