Summary of the Peer Review Group Report
Department of Surgery
University College Dublin
Approved by the Governing Authority at its meeting on 15 October 2002
Department of Surgery
Members of the Peer Review Group (PRG)
Name
Affiliation
Role
Professor T.G. Cooke
Royal Infirmary Glasgow
Extern
Professor Fred Given
National University of Ireland, Galway Extern
Professor Alan Harrison
Department of Irish, UCD
Chair
Dr Derek Mitchell
Department of Botany, UCD
Rapporteur
Professor John Bannigan
Department of Anatomy, UCD
Cognate
Members of the Departmental Co-ordinating Committees
Department of Surgery, Mater Hospital
Professor John Fitzpatrick
Professor
Professor Tom Gorey
Associate Professor
Dr Bill Watson
Lecturer
Mr Joseph Dowdall
Lecturer
Mr Paul Moroney
Lecturer
Ms Sally Jackson
Executive Assistant
Ms Sinéad Dunwoody
Student Co-ordinator
Department of Surgery, St Vincent’s Hospital
Professor Niall O’Higgins
Professor
Mr Enda McDermott
Senior Lecturer
Mr Arnold Hill
Lecturer
Ms Barbara Cantwell
Student Adviser
Ms Elaine O’Sullivan
Executive Assistant
Departmental Details
The Department is split into two Professorial Units, each of which is attached to a
teaching hospital: Mater Misericordiae, Dublin 7 and St Vincent’s Hospital, Elm Park,
Dublin 4. The Mater Hospital Unit has offices in 47 Eccles Street and there is also
laboratory space located in the main hospital building. The Professorial Unit at St
Vincent’s Hospital has offices for the Professor of Surgery, his Assistant and Surgical
Consultant in the main hospital. It has the use of some facilities in the Education and
Research Centre and in the hospital laboratories. There are dedicated research
facilities in Woodview on the main Belfield Campus.
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The staff in the Mater consists of one Professor of Surgery, who is Head of the joint
Department, one Associate Professor, one full-time College Lecturer (Director of
Research), and two special Lecturers. The Professor and one Special Lecturer have
50% clinical commitment to the Mater Hospital and 50% UCD academic
commitment. There is one full-time and one temporary Executive Assistants. The
research Group consists of four Post-doctoral Persons, three research Nurses, seven
Clinical Research Fellows and three PhD students. The Student Co-ordinator is shared
between Surgery and the other clinical departments of Medicine at the Mater Hospital.
There is a complement of sixteen staff in the St Vincent’s Professorial Unit: one
Professor of Surgery, one Consultant Surgeon/Senior Lecturer, one Consultant
Surgeon/Lecturer, six Honorary Lecturers (including a research scientist and a chief
biochemist) two Administrative Staff, one locum Administrative Staff, two full-time
Technicians and two research Nurses.
The principal contribution of the Department in the area of medical education is to
provide systematic instruction in Surgery to 5th and 6th year students in Medicine
leading to the degrees of MB, BCh, and BAO. The Department also contributes
clinical teaching for students at other levels and assists in other programmes e.g. BSc
Nursing.
Postgraduate teaching consists of the education and supervision of students registered
for the degrees of PhD, MD and MCh. The final year projects of a number of students
registered in various Science Degree Programmes are supervised by the research staff
of the Department of Surgery at both hospitals.
The Site Visit
The Site Visit took place at the two hospitals and the Belfield Campus from April 2 to
April 5, 2002. The PRG met the Co-ordinating Committees, the two Professors of
Surgery, other staff not on Co-ordinating Committee, the Dean of the Medical
Faculty, Non-Departmental Consultants from both Hospitals, undergraduates from
both Hospitals, the Chairman of the Medical Council of Ireland Education Committee,
the technical and administrative staff, employers and hospital administrators and the
Student Co-ordinators at both hospitals. Teaching, research and other student and staff
facilities were inspected by the PRG at both Hospitals.
The Peer Review Group Report
The PRG studied the two Self-assessment Reports, considered the evidence of the Site
Visit and drew up a draft version of their findings which were then presented to a
meeting of all the staff.
The PRG had two major observations to make concerning the Department of Surgery.
Firstly, excellent work in the areas of teaching and research is carried on by the two
units, but the fact that there are effectively two independent departmental units creates
a problem for the University. Each member of the teaching staff has a due teaching
and research workload, but consultants and non-consultant doctors, who are employed
by the hospitals and the health authority, carry out most of the teaching. Such an
arrangement is not unusual in teaching hospitals but the relationship between the
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University, the hospitals and the health service should be the basis of an agreement
between the University and the hospitals.
Recommendations of the Peer Review Group
Department Details

The PRG recommends that the separate Professional units investigate ways of
further liaison with each other at both formal and informal levels.

The PRG recommends that the agreements between the University and the two
teaching hospitals be signed and implemented without delay.

The PRG recommends that more experts in surgical sub-specialities be appointed
as academic staff to both teams.

The PRG recommends that the University make provision for the formal
recognition of the non-academic teachers (inclusion on staff lists, nominated as
honorary members of the Department, allowing them to use departmental
notepaper and other facilities).

The PRG recommends that, as far as is practicable, they involve the nonacademic teachers in the designing of the syllabus and in the planning of the
delivery of the courses.

The PRG recommends that the hospitals agree to the principle and practice of
providing dedicated beds for the academic departments of Surgery.

The PRG recommends that proper steps (by the Faculty, College and Hospitals)
to plan for appointing replacements of senior staff before vacancies (either
temporary or permanent) occur.

The PRG recommends that as far as possible there should be parity of facilities
and support services between the two hospitals.

The PRG recommends that appropriate appointments be made to provide
equivalent technical/scientific support for the research teams at each site (see also
recommendations regarding research below).

The PRG recommends that the relationship between UCD and the research
laboratories at St Vincent’s be regularised using the usual transfer-teaching
principles.

The PRG recommends that the Hospital and the University seek an agreement
that gives greater access to the academic researchers to the laboratories facilities
at St Vincent’s.
Planning and Organisation

For educational and logistic reasons the two hospital Departments should
continue as separate administrative units.

The research laboratories should integrate and cooperate more. This is only
possible in the context of the Conway Institute.

Problems of communication between the SVUH research team and Conway
should be resolved.
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
As a mater of the utmost urgency the University must provide the Mater with
adequate IT facilities.

The Mater should have a formal staff-student committee which meets at least
once per term.

While recognising the separateness of the two Departments, there should be a
joint staff-student committee which meets twice per year.
Taught Programmes

It must be ensured that Library and IT facilities within the new teaching centre at
the Mater Misercordiae Hospital are at least to the standard now at St Vincent’s
Hospital. It should be mandatory for UCD Computing Services to provide
access to the UCD network.

Scheduling of teaching should be arranged in such a way that it doesn’t conflict
with clinical staffs’ clinical students.

The intensity of teaching should not be over burdensome to the students.

Thought should be given to how students can be rotated throughout the hospital
system to broaden their experience.
Teaching and Learning
It seems surprising that in the re-organisation of the curriculum, the Faculty have
chosen to remain in the traditional mould with separate pre-clinical and clinical
courses rather than a more highly integrated approach. It would have been logical to
involve clinicians in more detailed formal planning form the start. We realise that the
changes to the curriculum are not the responsibility of the Surgery Department but
would make the following recommendations.

There should be more free time for students for self-learning and consideration
needs to be given to the development of special study modules.

Integrated teaching should be instigated which reflects modern multidisciplinary approach to patient care and avoids repetition.

There should be the development of clinical skill training.

There should be increased use of modern methods of teaching, and the use of IT.

Discussions with the Hospital Boards are required to ensure that academic
activities are protected.
Research and Scholarly Activity

Lack of basic laboratory equipment and its upgrading has resulted in an
equipment deficit and has slowed up progress on day-to-day research projects.

A credible career track is required for research scientists within UCD as it grows
bigger and needs to retain their excellent staff.

The contribution of Post-doctoral Fellows and PhD students within the
Department with regard to teaching, departmental duties and supervision needs
to be recognised by the Faculty of Medicine.
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
Lack of technical staff and IT support is a major problem for all aspects of the
unit and requires urgent consideration.

There is now an urgent need for tenure position of Senior Science Academic
Staff within the unit, which allows for stability and continuity to be maintained.

In order to achieve a critical mass in basis research, both units should
amalgamate and maximise the opportunity, which the Conway Institute offers
them. At the same time, basic facilities must be maintained for tissue processing
and clinical research at the base Hospitals.
External Relations

Exploit the new opportunities that will accrue from collaboration with the
Conway Institute.

Department of Surgery has excellent relations with other institutions outside
UCD and must endeavour to maintain them.
Support Services

The completion of building of all phases of the Undergraduate Education Centre
at the Mater site must be expedited speedily and be a top priority.

The new Undergraduate Education Centre at the Mater site must have adequate
computer facilities and support. This will require a major upgrade and
installation of online facilities within the UCD network.

Effort should be made to improve library services to medical students and staff
in the teaching hospitals, such as the main library providing textbooks to the
hospital libraries.

All academic and research staff at MMH must have online access to the e-library
and network at UCD.

Assignment of students to hospitals at the time of exams should be posted on the
web.

A meeting should take place between the Exams Office and the Department to
discuss the special problems of an off-campus department.
Response of the Departmental Co-ordinating Committees
The Departmental Co-ordinating Committees indicated that they were happy with
the Peer Review Group Report.
A copy of the full Peer Review Group Report is available from the Quality Assurance
Office.
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