Simon Fraser University to Get BC's Second Medical School

[VigoVirgo]

The provincial government of BC has pledged to open up a second medical school at Simon Fraser University. First class intake according to the article below will be in 2024/25. I'm curious what you all think about this?

https://the-peak.ca/2020/10/ndp-pledges-sfu-will-get-bcs-second-medical-school-program/

[OwnerOfTheTARDIS]

As a 4th year UBC Med student, I don’t think there is any chance that this will actually happen for one reason: it makes no sense.

It would take minimum 8-10 years to produce a single independent doctor if they started developing a new medical school today, compared to 2 years if they increased the number of residency seats and accepted more highly qualified IMGs.

Secondly, there are barely enough residencies for current graduates and believe me, you don’t want to be >100k in debt in 4th year and scared you won’t match.

Thirdly, UBC is already poised to fill the need for increased seats in Med school. In addition to having the IMP, SMP, and NMP, they are already in negotiations with Fraser Health to create a Fraser program, in which students in VFMP would be split and a subset complete their core clerkship (3rd year) based entirely out of the Fraser (expanding the number of sites that can be utilized within a reasonable commute).

Finally, in 4th year there are already barely enough electives, especially in certain specialties likefamily practice. During covid, the faculty has been extremely active working with divisions of family practice, hospitals and specialists to increase elective capacity but there still aren’t enough electives in many disciplines. Even in 1st and 2nd year, they struggle to find enough preceptors.

As much as it is difficult to hear for pre-meds, BC just lacks capacity to start a new med school without reciprocally reducing capacity at UBC. This is why I think it was just an election promise full of buzz words that won’t turn in to anything in the near future. Maybe more residency seats, hopefully.

[frenchpress]

1 hour ago, OwnerOfTheTARDIS said:

As a 4th year UBC Med student, I don’t think there is any chance that this will actually happen for one reason: it makes no sense.

It would take minimum 8-10 years to produce a single independent doctor if they started developing a new medical school today, compared to 2 years if they increased the number of residency seats and accepted more highly qualified IMGs.

Secondly, there are barely enough residencies for current graduates and believe me, you don’t want to be >100k in debt in 4th year and scared you won’t match.

Thirdly, UBC is already poised to fill the need for increased seats in Med school. In addition to having the IMP, SMP, and NMP, they are already in negotiations with Fraser Health to create a Fraser program, in which students in VFMP would be split and a subset complete their core clerkship (3rd year) based entirely out of the Fraser (expanding the number of sites that can be utilized within a reasonable commute).

Finally, in 4th year there are already barely enough electives, especially in certain specialties likefamily practice. During covid, the faculty has been extremely active working with divisions of family practice, hospitals and specialists to increase elective capacity but there still aren’t enough electives in many disciplines. Even in 1st and 2nd year, they struggle to find enough preceptors.

As much as it is difficult to hear for pre-meds, BC just lacks capacity to start a new med school without reciprocally reducing capacity at UBC. This is why I think it was just an election promise full of buzz words that won’t turn in to anything in the near future. Maybe more residency seats, hopefully.

Agree with this assessment 100%. 

[shikimate]

The fastest and easiest would be just to create another 50 FM residency seats and open them to CMG/IMG. All the CSA studying in Ireland/Australia/Caribbean would fill them in a hurry and voila in 2 years doctor shortage solved. Plus word is that a lot of CSA have powerful parents who want their child matched back to Canada so political expediency would be another consideration. Creating a new med school sounds like another Great Leap Forward lol. Let's mobilize our comrades at SFU, roll up their sleeves, and create another project that improves face!

https://thetyee.ca/News/2015/02/06/Former-Cabinet-Minister-Wins-UBC-Residency/

[Redpill]

This promise was purely a play at winning valuable swing ridings in Surrey. IF it happens (doubtful, for the reasons outlined above) you can expect them to start work on this right before the next election (in 4 years, since NDP has a majority now) with the promise to complete it should they win re-election.

[WaitingTooLong]

54 minutes ago, shikimate said:

The fastest and easiest would be just to create another 50 FM residency seats and open them to CMG/IMG. All the CSA studying in Ireland/Australia/Caribbean would fill them in a hurry and voila in 2 years doctor shortage solved. Plus word is that a lot of CSA have powerful parents who want their child matched back to Canada so political expediency would be another consideration. Creating a new med school sounds like another Great Leap Forward lol. Let's mobilize our comrades at SFU, roll up their sleeves, and create another project that improves face!

https://thetyee.ca/News/2015/02/06/Former-Cabinet-Minister-Wins-UBC-Residency/

Sorry to get off topic, but out of curiosity, do you know what happened to Dr. Lichtenstein?  I’ve been personally told me by friends  (in Ontario with powerful parents) that they don’t go through the same process as an average applicant (ie free admission to med school). Maybe I’m just naive but doesn’t that sound too good to be true?