Medical Training Expansion

The Province is doubling the number of doctors being trained in B.C. to address current and future shortages, particularly in rural and remote areas. As of September 2007, the number of first-year medical students increased to 256, compared with 128 in 2002.

To achieve this expansion, government has expanded the University of British Columbia’s medical school, with two new medical programs added at the University of Northern B.C. in Prince George and the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Government decided to educate doctors in the North and on Vancouver Island because for many years, B.C.’s rural and remote communities have found it difficult to recruit and retain qualified medical professionals. Between 1980 and 2001, the province’s population grew by 50 per cent, but the number of medical school spaces in B.C. did not increase. As a result, access to care declined in rural regions, particularly in the North.

Because MDs often set up their practices where they trained, having medical programs in more regions will help underserved areas attract their share of the province’s new doctors.

The UVic and UNBC programs are linked to UBC by state-of-the-art videoconferencing, a distributed learning approach to medical education that is unique in North America. Government invested $134 million in buildings to accommodate the new spaces and the technology to support this distributed learning. This investment includes $110 million for the new Life Sciences Centre at UBC’s Vancouver campus and about $12 million each for the Northern Health Sciences Centre at UNBC and the Medical Sciences Building at UVic.

News releases

First-year med students doubled, nursing spaces up 82%
Sept. 20, 2007

Next generation of B.C. doctors hit the wards
March 27, 2007

B.C. invests $27.6m to support doctor education
Jan. 12, 2005

UVic building ready to educate doctors on the Island
Dec. 10, 2004

Life Sciences Centre advances B.C. health education
Nov. 4, 2004

First-ever Northern medical program now open
Aug. 17, 2004

$2.2 million to advance northern health care
March 16, 2004

Life Sciences Centre on track to double medical spaces
June 11, 2003

B.C. doubles number of medical school students
March 15, 2002

Key Presentations

Cabinet Presentations

The University Presidents' Council of British Columbia