Senator Aisling Dolan - Strong Voice, New Vision.

West leading with new trailblazing courses for Rural Doctors & Pharmacists at University of Galway

October 18, 2024

West leading with new trailblazing courses for Rural Doctors & Pharmacists at University of Galway

Welcome news for two innovative courses for new Doctors and Pharmacists at University of Galway. This funding was announced today by Minister Patrick O’Donovan TD under the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science.

 This investment will change the healthcare landscape in the West of Ireland.

We face huge challenges when it comes to recruitment and retention of GPs in our towns in the West. So many people who don’t have a local GP because our GPs are reaching the age of retirement and finding it extremely difficult to find a young doctor to take on a rural practice which may entail more travel and more cover at weekends. It means more pressure on our excellent doctors and we know that they are the fabric of our local communities and it is definitely a vocation. We’re seeing a move towards group practices and the HSE struggles to provide locums and temporary doctors in so many rural locations especially in Roscommon and Galway.

Now the University of Galway has won funding for an innovative graduate entry medicine course for rural and remote areas. Students will focus on medical training and placements in our smaller towns to have a better understanding of how doctors and GP practices work in more rural areas. As part of this course students will train in Portiuncula University Hospital in Ballinasloe, Roscommon University Hospital as well as hospitals in Castlebar and Letterkenny as well as Primary Care Medical Centres and integrated care hubs. We will also have the first school of pharmacy in the West”

I’ve been a champion for these healthcare courses over the past two years within Fine Gael and the Seanad. I very much want to acknowledge the forward planning by the College of Medicine and University of Galway to recognise the unique challenges for rural areas. It is truly a college of the West and reflects why it is crucial to have a top class university in research and innovation to respond to regional needs.

Professor Martin O’Donnell, Dean of the College of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences and the university team have put together a plan for the future needs in our region for GPs and pharmacists. As a consultant within UHG, Prof O’Donnell has a close working knowledge of challenges in healthcare in the West and these student places will be a pipeline of talented GPs, doctors and pharmacists from next year.

I raised the urgent need to invest in novel ways to meet the unique healthcare needs in rural areas on many occasions in the Seanad, Joint Oireachtas Education Committee and within my own party. I would like to thank my colleague Minister Patrick O’Donovan over Further and Higher Education for this investment for a crucial project and to Taoiseach Simon Harris when he held this former portfolio for his unwavering support for Rural Graduate Medical entry and pharmacy courses. I’m also delighted to see the earlier investment in Mountbellew Agricultural College for veterinary courses linked with Letterkenny