Cautious optimism about Cape Breton University's new medical school campus

There has been plenty of reaction to the nearly $60 million pledged by the Nova Scotia government Tuesday for a new medical school campus at Cape Breton University (CBU) in Sydney, N.S.

"I think it's fantastic," said Jim Deleskie, a Sydney resident who is among the more than 130,000 Nova Scotians without a family doctor.

While he’s optimistic about the project, Deleskie said if the CBU medical campus isn’t expected to open until fall 2025, and it takes a few years after that for the first doctors to graduate, he doesn't see it helping him get a doctor anytime soon.

"I hope it's before 2030," Deleskie said. “But seeing how we're in 2023 already, the math kind of looks not so promising for that part."

Graham MacKenzie, a pharmacist in Baddeck, N.S., said he's heard first-hand on physician recruitment visits across the country that there is interest in practising in rural areas -- a need the new CBU medical campus aims to fill.

"I can tell you, there are lots of physicians out there who would love to practise in a rural setting," MacKenzie said. "I think if you have a school right here and the opportunity is in the community right now for those doctors, then this is the best way that we're going to get them."

The leader of Nova Scotia’s official opposition generally supports the project too but says he is concerned on who will teach at the new campus.

"This can certainly help if they're able to get this built in two years," said Zach Churchill, leader of Nova Scotia’s Liberal party. "Usually, you'll have faculty that come out of the hospitals to do the training and the academia sides for medical school, so we have to make sure that our hospitals aren't going to be hurt."

MacKenzie also wonders how housing the medical campus' students will work.

"The issue of where to live is going to come up," he said.

The Nova Scotia government said in a news release that CBU medical students may be required to agree to work in rural Nova Scotia for a number of years following graduation.

Similar concerns have also been raised about the new medical school building at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.

In February, the CEO of Health PEI, Michael Gardam, said he wasn't sure P.E.I.'s health-care system could support pulling back doctors to teach, or recruiting and paying for new doctors.