THE Ulster University professor overseeing the plans for the North of Ireland’s second medical training school to be based in Derry says delays to the project are deeply frustrating.
The medical school at Magee College had been due to open later this year.
But with no Stormont Executive and no ministers in place it means the school cannot open until 2020.
Prof Louise Dubras said she did not believe the impact of the political impasse would be this bad.
“It is really frustrating: We are ready to go,” she told BBC Radio Foyle.
“We have done amazingly well with what we have had to do with the General Medical Council.
“We are ready to roll – all we need is a decision.”
She said the longer the delay continues, the more difficult opening in 2020 will become.
Professor Louise Dubras of Ulster University
She said she was aware of the political stalemate in the North of Ireland when appointed to the role.
“I did not think it would be this bad. I see the impact it has and it is widespread,” she said.
About 60 doctors are due to begin training in Derry next year.
It is planned that student numbers at Magee will rise from an initial 60 trainee doctors to 120 students per year within five years of the school’s opening.
The only current medical school in the North is at Queen’s University in Belfast.
QUB has already thrown its support behind the new training college at Magee.
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