Professor Malachy Ó Néill’s 20-20 vision for Derry Medical School sees doctors settling after training in the city

Dr. Ó Néill said the long-awaited Graduate Entry Medical School in Derry was potentially a ‘game-changer and totemic’ for the north west region, revealing that interest in places is exceptionally high.

The university manager told members of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement that the expectation was that graduates of the new school will likely settle down in Derry.

This, he said, would help stop the ‘brain drain’ of students leaving Derry and Donegal and it will ameliorate some of the staffing issues the local health services have been coping with in the peripheral north western region.

“The statistic that we often use is that one needs 20-20 when we worked on the case for the medical school, that is that 80 per cent of medical school graduates reside in a 20-mile radius of where they study for a period of 20 years after they graduate.

“In some cases, that may be taken with a pinch of salt but, in reality, particularly given the graduate-entry model of medical school, these are people at a particular time in their lives with regard to settling down and making long-term commitments and long-term arrangements and so on,” said Dr. Ó Néill.

At present Ulster University is preparing for the first intake of its ‘most exciting project’ next summer. Dr. Ó Néill told the committee that the doors of the new school of medicine will open in August 2021 and there has already been huge interest in places.

“We have had the initial graduate medical school admissions test, GAMSAT, assessment series which, even in these difficult times, we have been able to run from our Magee campus. Obviously, levels of interest are exceedingly high and we look forward to welcoming that first cohort in 2021.

“The development of the medical school has been referred to as a game-changer and as totemic in many circles and it is,” he said.

The opening of the new medical school will help address years of underinvestment in the wider north west region.

Dr. Ó Néill explained: “It has been mentioned that it is the north-west corner of the island. When we put forward the case for the school of medicine, we were known to say that if one was to draw a line on the map from Galway to Belfast, one would not find a medical school on one side of it but would find seven on the other.

“The addition of our new school of medicine in 2021 will change all that. It will not only put in place the opportunity to train as doctors and physicians in the north west, but all the kinds of supportive research and spin-off opportunities for local businesses and local researchers in that regard.

“That is why the research wing of the school of medicine, which has become known as THRIVE and is another of the city deal innovation projects, is pivotal and such a huge opportunity for the city and region.”