Derry med school must ensure equality: DUP MP

The MP says the graduate entry school project has been widely campaigned for and supported by all political parties.

He added: “With the medical school now entering its next phase, the end result will, hopefully, be that fully qualified health professionals, having been based in the North West, will continue to live and practice in the same locality.

“We need to ensure that those applying for positions are more fully reflective of the population they hope to serve. Sadly, the public sector in many parts of Northern Ireland has been unrepresentative of the Protestant community and this has been particularly acute in the Londonderry and wider North West area.

“I recently wrote to the Equality Commission about the need for factors such as the advertising, location and recruitment to the school to ensure that the entire community is able to avail of what will be a tremendous facility. The Commission has indicated that ‘the composition of the student population has an impact on the future labour market’.

“It is essential that every effort is made to ensure under-representation does not occur yet again by lack of foresight or failure to act in advance.

“Hopefully, the same united approach that brought us this far can be maintained in legitimate demands for a fair and equitable labour market outcome”, said the East Derry MP.