MEDICAL MILESTONE.

Sudbury named principal site for a medical school in the North

In what was referred to by Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement as "a milestone in Ontario's health system" to alleviate the North's chronic doctor shortage, Sudbury has been named the principal site for a new northern medical school.

Through a teleconference link-up across the North from Laurentian University on May 17, Clement named the Sudbury institution as the main campus and administrative centre for Ontario's first medical school in more than 30 years. Thunder Bay's Lakehead University was chosen as a clinical education campus.

"Northerners told us over and over they need accessible quality health services in Northern Ontario," Clement says. "They made it clear that they expect the same level of care and service that people in other parts of the province enjoy."

Clement says it demonstrates his government's commitment to building and delivering sustainable and accessible health care to all Ontarians "as close to home as possible."

Beginning in 2004, 55 undergraduate students will enter Laurentian, with 20 of those students transferring to Lakehead in 2006 to complete their medical training. The remaining 35 will complete their training in Sudbury.

To deal with the North's more immediate physician shortages, the province is adding 120 undergraduate and post-graduate medical school seats over the next two years across the province. As well, post-graduate training positions will be increased by 25 in northern and rural communities starting next year.

E-learning technology will be an important component for teaching, but will occupy no more than 25 per cent of the whole learning experience.

"This is such a successful tool that it actually attracts potential medical students and physicians who want to participate," Clement says.

Clement explains Laurentian's extensive research capabilities in laboratory and classroom space, its general science. and health programs and proximity to the one of the North's largest regional hospital act as "critical mass" to attract physicians to serve as a pool for the teaching faculty.

"This was deemed doable," says Clement in fielding a question via telephone from Thunder Bay media on why Lakehead wasn't granted equal status in the endeavour. "I think 20 medical placements...in Thunder Bay is 20 more than you had yes terday."

He cautioned that it shouldn't diminish the importance of Lakehead's role in acting as a collaborative training partner with Laurentian. "You're getting a medical school with two campuses."

Clement says the model offers no great departure from the decentralized concept floated by the planning group of northern municipal and university officials, educators and health care professionals, but that the school merely needed a "political" centre in either Sudbury or Thunder Bay.

Other northern cities, outlying towns and aboriginal communities will continue to play a vital and active role in offering placements for various specialty training, he says.

Thunder Bay mayor Ken Boshcoff, who boycotted the news conference, didn't mince wordsin offering his disappointment with the ministry's direction.

"It can't get much worse in terms of news," Boshcoff says. "It's a tremendous kick in the teeth for us."

Boshcoff mentions that the northern mayors, municipal associations, medical professionals and chambers of commerce were solidly unified behind a two-campus medical school. The decision to go with Laurentian as the principal site, he says, reduces Lakehead to nothing more than a satellite campus, no different from other residency agreements they have with McMaster and Queen's University.

"Now instead of working on the implementation of this (school), we have to get organized for a huge political battle," says Boshcoff, who added his community was never consultedon this latest concept. "It's a southern-imposed solution."

The minister provided no funding details, but will leave it up to a planning team which was allocated $3 million in the May budget to prepare the development of a business plan which should be finalized by the fall.

They'll also begin searching for teaching specialists, administrators and an academic dean.

Geoff Tesson, executive director of health initiatives at Laurentian, says he'll continue to travel the length and width of Northern Ontario to ensure that all communities feel connected to the teaching aspects of this program.

"There will be some administrative apparatus here, but this isn't a Sudbury initiative, it's a northern initiative. We want to work closely with Thunder Bay and we'll continue to do so."