Room for more students at northern medical school

NEWS RELEASE

MIKE BROWN, MPP

************************* School of Medicine - Ontario government training more doctors

QUEEN’S PARK - Mike Brown, MPP, Algoma-Manitoulin, is pleased to announce that the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) will boost the number of first-year medical students by eight students in 2010-11.

NOSM will also receive over $1.6 million to buy additional equipment and to create space and equip off-site training locations in the community.

“By training more medical students in our community, we’re helping to ensure we will have the doctors we need for the future,” said Brown.

"This is part of the government’s commitment to improve access to doctors by creating 100 new first-year spaces at five medical schools over the next three years.

"Ontario must train more doctors, and the Ontario government is helping meet that demand by adding 100 new first-year medical spaces at our medical schools.

"We’re creating more opportunities for medical students to train closer to home, connect with the local medical community and prepare for careers where they study.”

Quick facts

By 2011, the government will have created 260 new first- year medical school spaces, a 38 percent increase since 2004-0

Ontario’s six medical schools will welcome 952 first-year students when the all of the new seats are added by September 2011.

New spaces are being created at five medical schools and nine locations.

In 2006, Ontario announced new community-based medical education campuses in Kitchener-Waterloo, St. Catharines, Windsor and Mississauga to train doctors in more communities and improve access to health care across the province.

The province is investing $35 million over three years to help medical schools build the specialized rooms, labs, and equipment they need to train our future doctors.

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