The School hosts two highly successful GP training schemes which are vital to the provision of essential physician manpower for the Irish Health Service. 

The North Dublin Inner City Specialist Training Programme in General Practice (in association with RCSI/Dublin North East General Practice Training Programme) was established in 2010. It offers four years of structured training in general practice and is one of the country's most popular training programmes.  Established in July 2010, the scheme offers 12 GP training places per year and is based in the UCD Catherine McAuley Research and Education Centre at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital.  The programme was created by a team of four UCD Medicine graduates comprising Dr Austin O'Carroll (UCD 1988), Dr Neasa McDonagh (UCD 1992), Dr Cathy Cullen (UCD 1989) and Dr Ming Rawat (UCD 1994). 

The HSE Dublin Mid-Leinster Specialist Training Programme in General Practice operates out of the UCD Health Science Centre in Belfield.  The four year programme comprises hospital and community placements across the East Coast from Skerries (North Co. Dublin) to Gorey (Co. Wexford). It is led by Dr Daragh O'Neill (Programme Director) supported by Assistant Programme Directors, Dr Anne Mulrooney, Ms Maria Leahy, Dr Reamonn O Donnchadha and Dr Alan Barry.

Our General Practice group has developed a primary care clinical teaching network comprising more than 140 GPs around the country which provides clinical placement opportunities throughout our medicine curricula. This network ensures that we can expose our students to real life clinical practice and provides the School with an infrastructure capable of delivering significant multi-centre primary care research.

This network has allowed the UCD Community Medicine group to significantly increase GP teaching within our programme and to introduce early patient contact. The visits to primary care centres by our Graduate Entry Medicine students during Week One, Semester One has been well received by both our students and participating GPs and helps put patient care in the community into context. The GP's within the training network are encouraged to participate in collaborative research projects led by our academic GPs and are offered an adjunct academic appointment which provides them with access to vital library facilities.

Many practising GP's participate in our graduate taught programmes to maintain their clinical professional competence including, but not limited to:

• Child Mental Health
• Dermatology
• Emergency Medical Science
• Respiratory Medicine
• Palliative Medicine