More medical students will be allowed to attend NOSM University (formerly the Northern Ontario School of Medicine), Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on Tuesday. The province has announced 30 new undergraduate positions that will be added to NOSM's usual uptake of 64 students.
Ford was speaking at a news conference in Brampton when he revealed the creation of more than 450 new positions for all six of Ontario's medical schools.
He was joined in the announcement by Health Minister Christine Elliott and Colleges and Universities Minister Jill Dunlop.
Ontario ministry of health officials said the addition of the new positions — 160 of which will be for undergraduate positions and 295 for postgraduate — marks the largest expansion of undergraduate and postgraduate education in Ontario in more than a decade.
It is also the largest ever expansion of NOSM, which has active campuses at Laurentian University in Sudbury and Lakehead University in Thunder Bay.
See: 'NOSM is our best vehicle to get doctors to train and stay in the north'
NOSM CEO Dr. Sarita Verma said it was exciting news.
"We're delighted and we believe that this is exactly what Northern Ontario needs; exactly what I promised to deliver when I came here two and a half years ago. And expansion of this training in medicine, in medical education, in delivering physicians to Northern Ontario will only improve the health of Northern Ontario and we will continue to have a huge impact," Verma said.
The normal cohort of 64 undergrad positions at NOSM is being bumped up to 94 positions, said Verma. In addition to that, the usual group of 62 residency positions in postgraduate training is being bumped up by an additional 41 positions to a total of 103.
Verma said most of the credit for the expansion has to go to Northern Ontario's municipal leaders. She said the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) and the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM) had been lobbying the province to expand NOSM's mandate to accept more students.
"They made their voices heard. And, you know, when you look at what happened to the other universities – Western, McMaster, the University of Ottawa, they only got postgraduate positions. We got a significant increase, you know, basically the same as University of Toronto," she said.
Verma said the additional number of students will put financial pressure on NOSM to step up with more teaching spaces and more professors.
"We're going to be ratcheting up as quickly as we can in as many spaces as we can. We've been preparing for this for at least a couple of years. And, you know, this has been certainly in the works since I got here two and a half years ago, expanding the medical school because listen, we want learners and people from Northern Ontario to have access to training in medical school and at NOSM University," Verma said.
"Now that we're a university we are pan-Northern. We will be looking at opportunities still in Thunder Bay and in Sudbury but we already have significant learning that goes on in Sault Ste Marie, in Hearst, in Timmins, in Sioux Lookout, and Kenora These are areas where, you know, if you train physicians in these areas, they're likely to practice in these areas," she added.
Verma said the increase in the enrolment will also mean more money will have to flow from the province, but that will not automatically cover the full cost. Verma said NOSM University will have to do a lot of fundraising in the future for bursaries and endowments.
"So student financial aid is something that we'll have to raise money for. And we are really hoping to approach the people of Northern Ontario to help us raise that money. We would like very much to actually make NOSM University as tuition free as possible, at least to reduce the burden on our students," Verma said.
"We will expect to receive some funding, but as I said, we will have to actually get the funding for payment of our clinical teachers, which is a very important part of this. And for site development. You know, we are very much an unusual medical university. We are not based just in one place. We're based in multiple places on urban campuses and many regional campuses. And to develop those campuses, we're going to require some funding. So I will say to you, we have requests from the government and we're looking forward to this government continuing to support us as they already have," Verma explained.
Len Gillis is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter at Sudbury.com, covering health care in Northern Ontario. The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible with funding from the federal government.
