Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 September 2023
30. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of the fact that medical students from Northern Ireland are unable to apply for internship posts in the Republic of Ireland due to an administrative loophole whereby their results are not ready in time for the HSE to consider them, and are therefore lost to the health services for ongoing employment to aid services here; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39629/23]
View answerThe Department of Health is aware of the challenges for Northern Ireland Medical School graduates meeting deadlines for Internship in Republic of Ireland. There has been ongoing engagement with the HSE, Medical Council and Northern Ireland universities to address these issues.
The Internship recruitment process is managed through a single, national, annual recruitment campaign. A central matching process allocates candidates to one of their preselected preferred Intern posts by order of merit using their centile score. A key dependency for this process is the receipt of centiles from medical schools by late May each year. This deadline is to ensure that after post offer, there is sufficient time for candidates to meet all employment and regulatory requirements before commencing Internship.
Interns start employment with the HSE in the last week of June each year. This allows a week of induction plus one week of shadowing existing interns. These two weeks are vital to support new interns and in the interest of patient safety.
The date of release of centiles by Ulster University is later than other Medical Schools in Republic of Ireland and does not meet May deadlines. This anomaly has not yet impacted students as the first graduates from Ulster University applying for internship in Ireland will be in 2025.
The HSE has engaged with Ulster University on this issue and further engagement is planned.
