Class of ‘25: First Derry doctors to pass through Magee Medical School give course a glowing prognosis

Derry Journal

Transcript

00:00My name is Sorka Hill. My first degree was French and Irish from Queen's University.

00:06I worked for some time in Dublin before I decided to come back and try to begin this new course.

00:12So amazing, you really jumped from humanities, that sort of thing, a total different change of direction.

00:19I had hoped to do medicine school, but things never worked out that way for me.

00:23And I'm glad now, looking back, I had a great experience with my first degree, but it wouldn't have let me be where I am today.

00:28Yeah, so I'm Seamus McMinn, originally from Dublin, and my previous background was working in the Irish language.

00:37And part of that time was spent actually working in the Irish department at the University of Ulster.

00:43Fair way. Now, how are you going to be doing, Augustine, how are you going to be doing?

00:47I'm going to be doing it. I'm going to be doing it.

00:50So it was a natural sort of choice when I heard that graduate medicine was going to be done at Ulster,

00:57open up here in Magee and Derry, that definitely piqued my interest.

01:02And in that summer of 2020, I decided to start studying for the entrance exams and make a real effort to get there.

01:12It's a really interesting path to take.

01:14I was speaking to another graduate, and she came from Irish language and language background too.

01:20Yeah, yeah. The one thing it always gives you is interesting stuff to talk to patients about, you know,

01:27that when they realise that you've been through, you know, different paths in life as well.

01:35So, but I think in line with the theme of, you know, the speeches there today, you know, that whole thing,

01:44life's only understood when you look back at it, you know.

01:48Yeah.

01:48And hopefully for everybody here today, this all makes sense for them and represents, you know,

01:55achieving something they really, really wanted to do.

01:58Now, just tell me a bit about your own background and how you came to the Graduate Entry Medical Program here at Magee.

02:03Yes, so I actually did a degree in Pharmacy at Queen's first, and so I completed that degree,

02:08and then I did my pre-registration training to become a pharmacist.

02:11And it was during COVID, I had just decided that I thought that I wanted maybe to go on and think about doing medicine.

02:19It's always been something that was in the back of my head, and I think with everything that went on in the pandemic,

02:24I saw the opportunity in this course come up and decided to apply, and thankfully got an offer, and here we are today.

02:30So, did that kind of sway you when you saw the pressure that the NHS was under?

02:36Yeah, definitely.

02:36We knew there was workforce issues, and you would have seen that on the pharmacy side of things?

02:40We had a lot more people coming into the pharmacy over that time, and it was very, very busy.

02:44Yeah, yeah.

02:44And I think you can definitely see the pressures on the health service as a whole,

02:48and I just happily motivated me to go on and compete what I wanted to do at the study medicine.

02:55I was a dentist by trade.

02:57I graduated 23 years ago in dentistry, and I'm married to Emma, and we have, we're very content,

03:03and we have a very happy life with good family support.

03:06But in 2020, I decided I wanted to switch to medicine, and I've had great support from everybody to do that,

03:12and I applied to the course here at McGee, and I was very thankful to get a place,

03:16and I've worked hard for four years along with my classmates, and it's been very successful.

03:21Yeah, and what was your overall impression of the course?

03:25Like, not like this in Derry before, but it started from scratch, but everybody has a very good word on it.

03:31Yes, we've always told it was a spiral curriculum, and we would cover material, then come back to it,

03:38come back to it, which you don't appreciate until you've actually been in it for four years,

03:42and you realize that there's been a lot of material that's been really well covered,

03:46and covered again and again and again until you start to remember it and understand it.

03:52So it's been very well designed.

03:54There's been ups and downs.

03:55It's been tough over some days harder than others, and some dark mornings during the winter.

04:00Yeah, yeah.

04:01But today makes everything worth it.

04:03What was your experience of the graduate entry medical program that we've got in McGee?

04:08It was more than I imagined it could have been.

04:11It was so special to be the first intake, the first cohort,

04:14and the welcome that we got from day one of the course from both the people of Derry and the wider area

04:20and in the hospitals was just immense.

04:22Yeah, and you were kind of forged in fire because you came in there and you were doing your experience.

04:28That's when I was at the worst possible time then.

04:31Absolutely.

04:32But we haven't felt too much of that heat and we have only just felt like we have been warmly welcomed

04:37and people are grateful to see the medical school finally up and running in the area.

04:41And where to now?

04:42So I was fortunate enough to get my top choice.

04:45I'll be in Belfast for my F1 in the Royal and coming straight back to Derry to help McGelvin for my F2

04:51and hopefully stay beyond that too.

04:53That's exactly what we want to hear.

04:55It's a really positive story.

04:57It's not just for all your personal journeys, but just workforce issues within the health service.

05:02We need you guys.

05:03Yeah, and even like the history of university here in this city, you know, that it's now a flagship institution

05:14that's in Derry, that's staying in Derry.

05:16And the hope would be that along with that institution of the school actually being there,

05:22that everything else that Derry deserves will flow.

05:27Infrastructure, you know, proper payment for people who do home care, nurses,

05:36that all of that will flow from having the School of Medicine here in Derry.

05:40And where to now for yourself in terms of your own medical...

05:44Luckily, I was able to get out McGelvin.

05:46Excellent.

05:46So I was starting there at the end of July.

05:53I'm delighted to bring 10 or 12 others from our year group who'll be starting in out McGelvin as well.

06:00So I'm delighted to be able to serve, you know, some of the community that we spent the last four years

06:09studying in and practising to become doctors.

06:12It'll be really nice to be able to serve them and look after them.

06:18As Colin was saying there, just to serve the community, like, you know?

06:21Yes.

06:22Yeah, yeah, yeah.

06:23I suppose when you came into it and you were doing your placements and things like that,

06:27it was probably the worst time that the medical profession locally had ever experienced.

06:31It was like, you were really...

06:33Well, it was strange because we were the first cohort.

06:35We got the impression that we were a massive boost to people and everybody was very excited to see us.

06:40Yes.

06:41And lots of our staff are working in hospitals and they'd be telling everybody we were coming.

06:45Yes.

06:45So we were very much a bit of an novelty and very much well-received and everybody was very welcoming to us.

06:51Yeah, yeah. Excellent.

06:52And where to now for you?

06:53So I'm going to work in Antrim area hospital with my F1 job and then Nevada in North Belfast and my F2 job.

06:59Right.

06:59So I'm very much looking forward to that.

07:00And your reflections on the course, if you were selling it to people who I think maybe did something completely different

07:06and wanted to try something new.

07:08Can I do better?

07:09It's a brilliant degree.

07:10And the staff take you through everything from the start.

07:13They're able to kind of give you more information, a lot of support around the course for getting started.

07:18I think honestly it's one of the best things I've ever decided to do.

07:21I've made so many new friends, learned so many new things, had amazing opportunities, met so many new people.

07:28And everyone has been so supportive and so lovely in teaching us and supporting us in our learning.

07:33And where to now for you?

07:35So I'm actually off to start my first job in Craigavon.

07:38So I'll be heading down that way for August.

07:41Yeah, yeah.

07:41So it's straight in there.

07:42Straight in.

07:43A little bit of a break, isn't it?

07:44Yeah, a little bit of a break and then straight in.

07:46And where are you from originally?

07:47I'm from Belfast.

07:48Belfast originally, but you came up here to do this course here?

07:50I came, I moved to Derry for the course, yeah.

07:52Excellent.

07:52And up there, it was great.

07:53I really, really enjoyed it.

07:55And needless to say, everybody who's come through the School of Medicine and now become doctors today,

08:04gives their full support to the School of Medicine and anything that is needed in the future

08:09to either help bolster it up or advance and progress it on.

08:14Absolutely, there's that great sense of, you know, we all did it together.

08:19And it was only because the School of Medicine was there and that we were all there for each other

08:23that it made the last four years possible.

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