B.C. INVESTS $27.6M TO SUPPORT DOCTOR EDUCATION

PRINCE GEORGE – Government is investing $27.6 million to expand and upgrade academic space in teaching hospitals around B.C. to support the increasing number of undergraduate and postgraduate medical students, Premier Gordon Campbell announced today.

“B.C.’s economy and population are continuing to grow, and good medical care is needed in communities throughout the province to support that growth,” said Campbell. “By next year we will have almost doubled the number of undergraduate medical students in an expansion that is leading the way in Canada. This funding follows through to ensure the infrastructure is in place at clinical facilities everywhere from Vancouver Island to northern B.C. where our medical students complete their hands-on education.”

The Premier was at the University of Northern British Columbia to welcome the first northern medical program students, who began classes this week under the University of British Columbia’s expanded medical education program. Campbell’s greetings were also relayed to the first Island medical program students at the University of Victoria, and students returning to UBC in the Vancouver-Fraser medical program, via the new “distributed learning” videoconferencing technology that links all three campuses for classes.

“We recognize that medical students receive a great deal of their education on the front lines of our health-care system, not just in conventional classrooms,” said Health Services Minister Shirley Bond. “This investment will give students modern, efficient facilities where they can learn the skills they will use to provide health care to patients across this province.”

The $27.6 million will be invested over the next 4½ years in teaching hospitals and other clinical facilities designated throughout B.C. The money will go toward renovations and upgrades of academic space, such as seminar rooms, on-call rooms, offices and library space.

“We know that doctors tend to practise close to where they were educated, so providing top-notch facilities around the province is the best way to ensure communities enjoy good medical care,” said Advanced Education Minister Ida Chong. “Our three new training facilities at UBC, UNBC and UVic are linked by the latest technology, and this model of distributed learning is attracting attention from medical schools around the world.”

UBC’s faculty of medicine is working with UNBC, UVic and the province’s health authorities to provide medical student education provincewide. Medical education will take place in hospitals, clinics and health-care settings in all six health authorities, as well as at the three universities.

“Academic partners, clinical partners, health authorities and the provincial government have joined together to usher in a new era in medical education and research in B.C.,” said Malcolm Maxwell, CEO of the Northern Health Authority.

In December, 200 medical students completed their first semester in Vancouver at UBC. Twenty-four of these students are continuing their studies at UNBC, and 24 at UVic.

By 2008/09, 96 students will be studying to become doctors in each of the Northern and the Island medical programs, and 704 will be in the Vancouver-Fraser medical program. Upon graduation, students from all three programs receive medical degrees from UBC.

“I’ve already decided to practise in northern B.C., so this program was tailor-made for me,” said student Christina Neufeld, of Fort Nelson. “I’m looking forward to training in a variety of clinical settings that will prepare me for the conditions I’ll experience as a doctor.”

To become a licensed practising physician, a doctor also needs to complete postgraduate medical education. Postgraduate positions, or residencies, increase to 160 in 2004/05 from 128 in 2002/03. The number of residencies is planned to increase every year until 2010/11, when there are expected to be 256 residencies in B.C., an increase of 100 per cent from 2003/04.

The $27.6 million to fund expansion and enhancement of academic space in teaching hospitals comes from the existing capital budget of the Ministry of Health Services.

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Media contact:	Public Affairs Bureau Ministry of Health Services 250 952-1887	Mike Morton Press Secretary Office of the Premier 250 213-8218

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