CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — UPEI president Alaa Abd-El-Aziz could be forgiven for thinking the idea of establishing a medical faculty on P.E.I. has snuck up on him.
The level of support for a home-grown medical school has caught him by surprise.
Abd-El-Aziz said the university is working on establishing as many as six new study programs, including a doctor of psychology.
"But not too many people even ask me 'what are these programs?'," he said.
By contrast, Islanders regularly ask Abd-El-Aziz about the status of development of a medical school. With more than 15,000 Islanders currently without access to a family doctor, it is easy to see why the initiative is gaining support.
"The medical school is an emotional subject because everybody has a feeling about it and everybody would like to feel involved in the decision-making," Abd-El-Aziz said.
In his first public interview on the subject, Abd-El-Aziz says he is approaching the idea with caution.
"I think it will be a good idea. But 'good idea' doesn't mean UPEI is going to do it. What I have to do first is, do my homework."
Right now, that homework is the development of a concept plan, outlining what type of medical school would be most appropriate for P.E.I. If that is approved by the university’s senate and board of governors, the process of developing a full business plan, with a government-ready price tag, could take as long as a full year.
Abd-El-Aziz said he does not know if building a medical faculty is the best or quickest way of addressing the doctor shortage on P.E.I. But he said it could help recruit and retain doctors.
"When they know very well there is a vision for the medical system in P.E.I., I think you'll have a much better attraction of people coming here."
A university committee is examining other medical schools that have been recently established.
The Northern Ontario School of Medicine at Lakehead University, with its focus on rural health care, could serve as one model. But Abd-El-Aziz said other international models, such as the faculties of medicine at Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin and University of Limerick in Ireland, may be more applicable to P.E.I.
The idea of training family physicians on P.E.I. started to gain steam after the NDP included the notion as a key plank in their platform prior to last April’s provincial election.
During the recent federal election, candidates from the Conservatives, Liberals and Greens also expressed varying levels of support for the idea. The NDP released a statement from leader Jagmeet Singh endorsing the idea. The cities of Charlottetown and Summerside have passed resolutions in support of the notion, while Premier Dennis King has publicly mused about it.
It remains unclear whether such a program would be offered in partnership with medical schools at Dalhousie University or Memorial University of Newfoundland. Abd-El-Aziz said the possibility of a stand-alone program is also being examined.
In an e-mailed statement, the Dalhousie Medical School declined to comment, stating the initiative was not directly connected to the university. A representative from Memorial University did not provide direct comment on the matter but said the schools’ dean of faculty medicine would be meeting with P.E.I.’s deputy minister of health in the coming weeks.
Key hurdles to a medical faculty on P.E.I. would be the need to increase capacity for teaching at local hospitals and the need to attract doctors to teach.
“Even if you have a medical school on the campus here in Charlottetown, that's for teaching classes. But you really need the hospital to support you because those doctors have to practise," said Abd-El-Aziz.
"We would have to have professors of medicine here. And those professors would not come unless they are associated with hospitals."
Developing a medical program would require significant upgrades at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, the Prince County Hospital and the Kings County Memorial Hospital.
Abd-El-Aziz said the scale of developing a medical faculty, integrated into the existing health system, would be more complex than previous programs developed by the university.
"We need the Island to know the pluses and minuses step by step," he said.
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