The number of seats designated for Islanders at the Memorial University Faculty of Medicine in Newfoundland will triple by 2011, says Premier Robert Ghiz.
“The agreement with Memorial will offer new opportunities for young Islanders to embark on a career in medicine,” Premier Ghiz said. “Over the next number of years, this agreement should provide significant dividends in the provision of health care to all Islanders.”
In a letter to the Premier, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine James Rourke said, “We have found that Prince Edward Island students bring with them the very highest motivation and fit very well into our MD education program.
“Our MD education program has had great success in training physicians both as family physicians and as specialists who are ideally trained for practice in small and medium-sized communities typically found in Atlantic Canada.”
Currently, the Island has two designated seats at Memorial. This will increase to four in 2009 – and up to six in 2011.
The increase in seats will dovetail well with the planned Prince Edward Island Residency Program, said Health Minister Doug Currie, who just returned from a recruiting effort in Newfoundland. Further, Prince Edward Island is in discussions with Dalhousie Medical School on the potential for more seats there.
“One of the keys to solving our challenges in physician recruitment and retention is making sure that more Islanders have the opportunity to become doctors,” Mr. Currie said. “The agreement with Memorial is an important step down that path.”
One aspect of the Memorial agreement will be to increase “the opportunities for students to spend more of their clinical education in P.E.I.,” Dean Rourke wrote in his letter.
“We feel that our fit with Prince Edward Island is very good and are delighted you have requested more seats for P.E.I. students in our MD education program,” Dean Rourke said.