20 août 2014 – Times & Transcript Medical school deal renewed

Education Partnership that spawned UdeM medical school continued for at least five years

James Foster Times & TranscripT

Officials from l’Université de Moncton, l’Université de Sherbrooke and the provincial government gathered on the Moncton campus yesterday to renew the agreement that sees the Sherbrooke university’s medical program delivered at the UdeM’s medical school.

“Since its opening in 2006, the Centre de Formation Medicale du Nouveau- Brunswick has continued to evolve,”U de M president and vice-chancellor Raymond Théberge said.“Thanks to the Université de Sherbrooke and the government of New Brunswick, francophone students in Acadian communities have much greater access to training in medicine.”

Théberge, as well as UdeS vice-president Alain Webster, UdeM medical and health sciences dean Pierre Cossette and provincial Education Minister Marie- Claude Blais were on hand for the announcement. Cossette praised the initiative as a first for Canada and“unique”in the world Francophonie, and predicted that the extension of the agreement would lead to even more programs being shared between the two universities in the fields of medicine and health sciences.

“With a vision that provides for partnerships and mutual enrichment, the faculty can contribute to providing residents of New Brunswick with both medical education and quality health-care services that are responsive to their needs, and it can ensure this continues into the future,”Cossette said.

This extension runs indefinitely, subject to review every five years.

Medical school founder and director Dr. Aurel Schofield also predicted that the partnership will lead to further collaboration in the future.

“We know that, together, with collaborations such as this, we will reach new heights,”Schofield said.

It has been 10 years since the two institutions put their heads together to figure out how to create a medical school, taught in the French language, in Moncton where there was none at the time. Previously, anyone wanting to study to become a medical doctor in French had to leave the province. Now French- speaking New Brunswickers can do their studies in their home province.

The result has been a higher uptake of the pursuit of medicine among French- speaking New Brunswick students and more doctors remaining in the province upon graduation to ply their trade in a province where they are badly needed.

In 2012, 12 of the school’s 13 graduates who hail from New Brunswick stayed in the province to practice. In 2013, 14 out of 15 native graduates opted to practise here. Last spring’s class of 16 native New Brunswick graduates all stayed here to practise medicine.

The school also boosted medical and health research in New Brunswick and lead to the creation of the province’s first university hospital, within sight of the medical school, at the Dr. Georges-L. Dumont University Hospital Centre, where students receive some of their clinical training and where some research takes place.

“To strengthen our province and contribute to its further development, we must invest in our most precious resource: the people of New Brunswick,” Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development Marie-Claude Blais said. “We are convinced that the Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick plays a crucial role in our government’s efforts to improve the province’s health-care system. We also believe that this CFMNB is an important component of our efforts to build a more prosperous New Brunswick.”

The province is spending $3.8 million on the program at both universities this coming year, climbing to $4.1 million in 2018-19. On top of that, the province also pays approximately $3.3 million per year to buy the seats from Sherbrooke (as part of a Quebec-New Brunswick agreement on seat-purchase for health programs.) The province also buys seats in medical schools in other provinces for

English-speaking New Brunswick medical students.

Webster was effusive in how well the partnership has worked for both universities as well as for New Brunswickers.

“The decentralization to Moncton of Sherbrooke’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences medical doctorate program in co-operation with the New Brunswick medical training centre is the only initiative of its kind in Canada,” he said.“This approach is truly reflective of the Université de Sherbrooke’s willingness to continue to be innovative in its attempts to respond to the needs of the communities it serves.

“This agreement will enable us to maintain, and even intensify, our relationship with benefits for the students and the New Brunswick francophone community as a whole.”

From left are Dr. Aurel Schofield, director and founder of Centre de formation médicale du Nouveau-Brunswick; Université de Sherbrooke Dean Pierre Cossette; Marie-Claude Blais, education and early childhood development minister; Raymond Théberge, Université de Moncton president and vice- chancellor; and Alain Webster, vice-president of sustainable development and government relations, Université de Sherbrooke. Photo: GREG AGNEW/tIMES & tRANSCRIPt