Dear sir:
According to recently-published media reports, the expert panel appointed by former Health and Long-term Care minister Elizabeth Witmer is recommending the creation of medical school campuses of Greater Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Windsor, affiliated with existing medical schools.
Some may conclude this is the good news we have been waiting for. Well, don’t start the celebrations yet.
There is a major different between a satellite campus and a stand-alone school–the difference between a few courses and a full curriculum, a few months and a full calendar, a small number of transient lecturers and a critical mass of medical faculty, a curt nod in the direction of appropriate training for northern and rural practitioners and a full embrace.
The expert panel that authored the emerging report, “Shaping Ontario’s Physician Workforce,” was appointed to study the recommendations made to the health minister in the December, 1999 report by Dr. Robert McKendry.
Dr. McKendry recommended the minister “Make a commitment to rural medicine education,” adding that “Ontario should consider the advisability of creating a new medical school in rural medicine with a specific mission to attract students who are interested in working in the province’s small, rural and remote communities.”
He also called for the assessment of this option against other alternatives and advocated the establishment of a medical school with 55 students in the north.
Dr. McKendry noted that the two things most likely to lead physicians to voluntarily select underserviced areas and remain in rural practice are attitude and education. Those who grow up and complete their education in northern and rural areas are more likely to choose to practice in these areas.
Could a satellite campus inculcate the attitude and deliver the education that would make a difference? All the research indicates it wouldn’t go far enough.
We do have an existing satellite model in the well-respected family practice residency program jointly located in Laurentian and Lakehead universities. Our existing program provides 300 medical learners from southern schools with just one to three months of undergraduate and post-graduate clinical experience in northern communities.
Over the past 10 years, about 200 physicians in training have completed this program and more than 70 percent have been recruited to northern and rural communities. This assures us that training in the north does make a difference to physician recruitment.
But we need more.
Across Northern Ontario, we face a mounting shortage of medical specialists. The critical mass of medical faculty that a northern and rural medical school would provide will increase the opportunity to recruit and retain the additional specialists, and add to the complement of specialists and family physicians that serve the more than 700,000 people in Northern Ontario.
Yes, the school will be located at Laurentian and Lakehead universities, however, physician training also will take place in 32 communities in Northeastern Ontario and 20 more in Northwestern Ontario, helping increase the supply of general practitioners where they are needed most.
Having a northern school will enable northerners to influence admission criteria to attract candidates with a demonstrated interest in rural and northern areas. It also will enable us to provide “northern exposure”–a direct experience of the culture, language, geography, demographics, and practice patterns for this distinctive part of Ontario.
A Northern and Rural Medical School also will strengthen Laurentian and Lakehead universities by providing funding for a unique, niche training program of potential interest to similar jurisdictions in this country.
The Ontario College of Family Physicians, in its discussion paper “Where Have All the Family Doctors Gone?” also recommends a sixth medical school in Ontario. There is no opinion more expert than that.
In short, we have two solutions on the table: a variation of the southern same-old, same-old that will leave us with the same old shortage of physicians in Northern Ontario and a viable, innovative proposal to establish our own school.
In the words of Dr. McKendry, we believe it is time for the Ontario government to “act now.” Act to establish the Northern Ontario Rural Medical School.
Signed,
Jim Gordon,
Mayor, City of
Greater Sudbury
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
