Med school push accelerates
Those advocating creation of a medical school in the Valley have stepped up their pace. Congressmen Jim Costa, D-Fresno, and Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, have formed a coalition to rally efforts in developing a medical school on the campus of the University of California at Merced.
The lawmakers held their first meeting with the group of Valley political, business and health care leaders, including Community CEO Tim A. Joslin, on Feb. 18 at the UCSF Fresno Medical Education Research Center.
UC Merced officials will present a report to the UC system’s governing Board of Regents in May asking permission to continue planning for the medical school. The coalition, with members from Modesto to Bakersfield, will be asked to support those efforts.
As currently envisioned, medical students would receive their first two years of training at the UC Merced campus and then be rotated for hands-on medical training at Community Medical Centers and other hospitals and health care institutions throughout the Valley.
Community, in partnership with the UCSF-Fresno Medical Education Program, currently has about 190 residents in training in Fresno, along with about 200 third- and fourth-year
medical students.
The Valley is recognized as a seriously underserved region in numbers of physicians and other medical professionals. One benefit of the Community-UCSF partnership is that many physicians who have trained locally choose to open their practices in the area. The UC Merced medical school plan hopes to accelerate that trend.
The Valley push for a medical school roughly parallels efforts by UC Riverside to create a medical school in the growing Inland Empire region, raising the question of whether regents would approve both.
Although UC Merced officials do not envision creating a traditional medical school structure on campus, there will be significant costs in developing the program, recruiting faculty and securing accreditation. Additionally, the goal of enrolling a first class by 2012 or 2013 may be hampered by cutbacks borne of a multi-billion-dollar California budget deficit.
UC Merced chancellor Steve Kang acknowledged those difficulties at a Feb. 13 reception in Fresno for about 100 community leaders. But he pledged to be relentless in seeking support from the other nine UC chancellors, the Office of the President in Oakland and donations from Valley residents.
UC Merced, which opened in 2005, had a total student population of 1,871 last fall. More than 10,000 students have applied for the fall 2008 class, when total enrollment is expected to be about 2,500.
This story was reported by John Taylor. He can be reached at jtaylor@communitymedical.org.