Irish Medical Organisation

Intern Placement 2013

Update 8th February 2013

Further to our recent email with regard to Intern places we have just received communication today from the HSE Medical Education and Training Unit that up to eighty additional intern places are being sought for July 2013. There is still a disparity of around thirty places between the number of category 1 eligibility applicants (those who do not require a work permit to work in Ireland) and the number of intern places even if the full additional 80 places are provided.

The Intern Eligibility Test will be next Friday and approximately 90 of the 681 category 1 applicants will have to sit this test. Following the results of same there may be a more even match up of applicants to places.

This still means there will be no places for any non EU students of Irish Medical Schools who require a work permit to work in Ireland. Furthermore the HSE will not be doing a presentation to final year medical students as they have done in the previous years. It is the IMO’s view that it is patently unfair that many non EU students were not clearly informed that they will not be able to obtain an intern position in Ireland particularly given that the application date has passed for applying for an intern position in other jurisdictions.

The IMO are continuing to seek a meeting with the Minister to discuss this issue and to help formulate an acceptable long term solution.

We will be updating all students as this matter progresses and we are currently seeking written confirmation from HSE MET as to the position.

Background

This coming July 2013 there will be a significant shortage of intern places relative to graduates. With regard to students who require work permits to work in Ireland it appears, as it stands, that there will be no intern places available for such students. This issue has been flagged in a number of reports over the years, most recently in the second interim implementation report from April 2012.

Last year there were 570 intern places available. The IMO calculates currently that there are 681 eligible students who do not require work permits to work in Ireland who have applied for an intern position. This breaks down as:

  1. 615 EEA nationals from Irish Medical Schools
  2.  28 Non EEA students from Irish Medical Schools who do not require work permits
  3. 33 EEA students from non- Irish Medical Schools
  4. 5 Non EEA students who do not require work permits from non-Irish Medical Schools

All the above applicants will rank equally in terms of eligibility. Therefore allocation to intern places will be on the basis of your percentile ranking unless there is a dramatic increase in the number of places.

Since 2008, the IMO and others have been raising the serious concerns regarding the number of available intern posts which has not kept pace with the vast increase in medical students. We have written to the current Minister on a number of occasions (Leah insert link 2,3,4,5) and indeed the issue was raised with the previous Government. The Fottrell Report, which led to the Government decision to increase medical student places, also recommended a corresponding increase in intern posts. This has not happened with the result that we now have an excess of medical graduates to intern places.

We are asking all medical students to please fill out the attached template letter and send it to their local TD (Leah link 6)either by post or by email. It is essential that we lobby the Government through all available avenues and heighten awareness of this issue in order to push it up the priority list of the Department of Health and HSE.

The IMO executive will continue to push the Minister for a response and a meeting on this issue. The fault for this looming crisis rests squarely at the door of the HSE and the Minister who have been aware of this issue for some time but have chosen, contrary to all available reports, recommendations and correspondence to do nothing about this to date. It is up to each individual affected to help highlight this issue and bring pressure to bear on the Minister, the HSE and Medical Council to fund, approve and allocate additional intern places as a matter of urgency. We would ask that you forward this email to your friends and classmates who are not IMO members and ask them to help us in highlighting this issue. Indeed IMO membership is free for all students and given the current situation it would be advantageous for all involved to join the IMO in order that they can be included on mailing lists and have access to our website where this information and further information will be displayed.

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