Tender Released For Northern Health Sciences Centre
May 5, 2003 For Immediate
Release
Construction companies interested in building the state-of-the-art building
that will house the Northern Medical Program have until May 29th to submit
their bids. The tender package for construction of the facility is being
released today through the UNBC Purchasing
Office.
The Northern
Health Sciences Centre will be built to the north of the Library building
and will be a showcase for wood and high-technology. At just over 42,000
square feet, the building will house laboratories, small classrooms, meeting
rooms, offices, and a pair of lecture theatres. A sophisticated telecommunication
system will link medical students with the university campuses in Victoria
and Vancouver as well as with physicians throughout the North. The building
is expected to be complete in the late summer of 2004. The Northern
Medical Program - an integral part of BC's Medical School - will accept
its first 24 students that fall.
BC's Medical School is a partnership involving the University of British
Columbia, the University of Northern British Columbia and the University
of Victoria designed to ease the doctor shortage by doubling the number
of student spaces by 2010.
Currently, 128 MDs graduate from UBC per year. BC has the lowest per
capita number of medical school spaces in the country.
The partnership should help to ease BC's shortage of rural doctors since
studies show that doctors tend to practice in the regions where they receive
their training.
Site preparation for the Northern Health Sciences Centre is also beginning
today. The work is being undertaken by Western Industrial Contractors
of Prince George.