Maurice Cummins (Fine Gael)

I welcome Senator Ormonde's comments about a university for the south east. The Fottrell report analysing medical education in Ireland is welcome. This is the first time an inclusive review of this nature has been undertaken and it has been a worthwhile exercise. The report provides a platform for differently structured access to a professional education that equips young professionals and disposes them towards continual professional development when they enter employment.

Given the needs of society and the ever-changing patterns evident in other professions, it is clear that a fresh approach to medical education is needed. Similar changes are required in medical research and extending the knowledge base, which will call for ongoing reform in syllabi and curricula. It will call for change in other areas too.

It will also call for a more diverse range of skills and understanding and a different sense of mission. We know that health issues are complex. The health service is struggling and costs are spiralling. However, we should not lose sight of the care of the individual patients, which should be at the centre of all our thinking about health services. Good medical education and quality health care are inextricably linked, a fact which we perhaps have not always recognised in the past.

We must change the structure of medical education. The current model of medical education for undergraduates has served a purpose and may do so in the future in a more limited fashion.