My Department and the Department of Health are aware of the challenges being encountered for Northern Ireland Medical School graduates meeting deadlines for Internship in Republic of Ireland. I am informed that there has been ongoing engagement with the HSE, Medical Council and Northern Ireland universities to address these issues.
I understand from the Department of Health that 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.
I am informed by the Department of Health that the HSE has engaged with Ulster University on this issue and further engagement is planned.
