On Tuesday, June 7th, NL Premier Dr. Andrew Furey was joined by the Dean of the MUNL Faculty of Medicine, Dr. Margaret Steele and second-year medical student Georgia Darmonkow. They announced the addition of 5 seats at the MUNL School of Medicine for residents of Newfoundland and Labrador for fall 2023.
There are a total of 80 seats at the school. Previously, 60 seats were reserved for NL residents (with 3 of those for Aboriginal students), 10 for students from New Brunswick, 4 for students from PEI, and 6 for international students and those from other Canadian provinces. As the government of New Brunswick will not continue to reserve ten seats, 5 of these will be redirected towards NL residents, with a provincial investment of $100,000 per year (per seat). Of the remaining 5, 1 seat will be reserved for an Aboriginal student. The province is discussing with the military to fill the four vacant seats. “It’s an investment that pays dividends not in economic returns, but in returns to the health of the people of the province,” Premier Furey commented.
Of the 17 medical schools in Canada, the MUNL School of Medicine has the second smallest class size in the country and the smallest in Atlantic Canada. With the province facing a severe shortage of physicians today, this announcement raised several questions about the efficacy of this plan in alleviating the urgent crisis.
According to Premier Furey, “We recognize that there is an immediate need, and we’re looking at creative solutions for the acute term, but we also need to divert a case to how we can change long term. An opportunity like this to ensure that we’re educating more Newfoundlanders and Labradorians in medicine since they’re statistically more likely to stay here helps solve the problem for future premiers and Ministers of Health as well, so this is an important step. It will not pay dividends tomorrow, but it will pay dividends for the people of NL in 6 to 10 years and beyond. We have to build for the future today.”
Constructing additional measures to increase the number of qualified physicians in the country is also essential to addressing the shortage.
The premier cited changes in medical training and working styles and the opportunity to train and certify immigrant physicians to practice in NL as important factors in solving this issue. “We want to make sure that we’re having a multi-tiered approach to deal with the physician crisis,” Premier Furey commented. “Training more, changing how people practice, and looking at recruiting more are three elements of how we’re trying to deal with the doctor density issue.”