At its open cabinet meeting today, the Government has earmarked $12.5 million to build a state-of-the-art, 42 000 square foot medical teaching facility at the University of Northern British Columbia's Prince George campus. Further information, including a graphic showing the location of the new building on campus, is available on the web at www.unbc.ca/nmp. The University is now seeking design proposals from architects.

The Northern Medical Program is part of an initiative to double the number of physicians trained in BC. The expanded program will include an increase in medical students at UBC, as well as the development of the new Island Medical Program involving the University of Victoria. In addition to the new facility announced for UNBC, the expanded medical education program is requiring campus expansion at UVic and the construction of a major life sciences building at UBC. All of the new facilities will be connected by a telecommunications network for videoconferencing, etc.

"Key to our distributed medical education plan is a recognition of the regional differences throughout BC," says UNBC President Charles Jago. "For the first time, undergraduate medical students in BC will have the opportunity to complete most of their education outside of the Lower Mainland. Even though our core medical teaching building will be located on the Prince George campus, Northern Medical Program students will have an exposure to many different communities in the North through practical placements working with local doctors." Further development of the distributed medical education program is being funded by a $5 million planning and implementation fund created by the BC Government.

"This is exactly the kind of program I'm interested in," says Christina Neufeld, a UNBC student from Fort Nelson who is interested in enrolling in the new NMP. "I grew up in northern BC and I'm very interested in practicing in the North - this new program will give
me the skills and education I want."

It is expected that the Northern Medical Program will accept its first 24 students in 2004. Students will spend their first semester at UBC before having the opportunity to complete the remainder of the program in northern BC.

While unique in Canada, the new medical education plan and its northern component have been based on medical education programs in Scandinavia and the United States; programs that prove the impact and success of northern/rural physician training. In each model, the educational program has greatly increased the number of doctors practicing in northern regions.

The impetus for the Northern Medical Program came from a grassroots movement to improve health care in northern BC. The idea of training doctors in the North was first presented by residents of northern BC at a huge health care rally in Prince George in June, 2000. Similar events were held throughout the North. In January 2001, a proposal for expanding medical education through a distributed model was unveiled at the National Health Summit in Prince George.