A new medical school will make medical students’ situation even more difficult

I have received this email from a doctor.

With regards to your article on the new medical school in Gozo, I would like to explain what even just an additional 60 medical students would mean to our hospitals.

I was a fifth-year medical student in 2007 and there were 60 of us in our year. We were often told by our lecturers that we were the largest class at Medical School.

Teaching was carried out in the form of lectures to the whole group of 60, and tutorials in small groups of seven or eight. This carried on throughout the five years.

The first two years were taught at the University campus, and the last three at the Medical School (lectures only) with tutorials at the general hospital, where we also attended outpatients clinics and ward rounds with different consultants.

In our final year we were expected to find time to see patients on our own, asking them to allow us to practise different examinations, look out for signs and reach a diagnosis, and learn to take a good history.

We appreciated it greatly when patients allowed us to bother them while they were resting. We used to recommend patients to each other, and it was quite a race to find good patients ourselves, interview them and examine them before they became too tired of being poked around by too many students and began to refuse.

Back then, we only had practical exams in the fifth year, so this meant that only fifth-year medical students were really active on the wards and bothering patients.

Unfortunately, a couple of very good students in my year failed their practical exams but passed their written exams brilliantly. I never thought that coming across as anxious while answering questions correctly would count against you; of course, now I know differently.

The Dean realised what the problem was, so practical exams were introduced from third year onwards in 2009. This meant that suddenly, students from three different years were examining patients on the wards. Fifth-year students began complaining that it was getting too difficult to find patients who would allow them to examine them and talk to them.

To make matters worse, classes began to grow in size. Every year, the intake grew. Last year, 200 new doctors graduated, compared to around 60 when I did seven years earlier.

I know that today’s medical students are not too pleased about this new medical school, because that means even greater competition for patients/places during ward rounds, at outpatient clinics and in operating theatres, assisting during operations and finding senior doctors available and willing to give extra tutorials and perform specific procedures like catheter insertion.

I feel I should provide these details for you to fully understand what an extra 60 or 300 (I’m getting confused as to the correct number, because unless 60 students start concomitantly in each student year from the very beginning, there will only be 300 students after 4 years) would mean for medical students and patients.