Madam, - Following my interview with Kathryn Holmquist on gender mix in medicine colleagues have rushed to the letters page to portray me as a misogynistic male medical pig.
The gist of the report in your edition of August 21st concerned my views on graduate entry into medicine in the framework of the current debate. In supporting the move towards a graduate programme I cited my experience with North Americans. Over the years most Irish medical schools have had increasing experience of graduates from North America entering their medical schools. They demonstrate a willingness to participate in their own education. In small group teaching in my subject area they challenge and question accepted norms and ideas and demand higher standards from us.
This comes partly from being older but they have told me that the relative passivity of our Irish students, male and female, is partly due to their school culture and to the medical world they aspire to enter. They seem to espouse conservative views when they have the opportunity to be more radically minded. This is what I wanted to contribute to the debate but doing an interview on a mobile phone in the late evening in the middle of the supermarket is clearly hazardous. - Yours, etc.,
Dr TOM O'DOWD, Professor of General Practice, Trinity College, Dublin 2.