P.E.I., federal governments announce $35M for new UPEI medical school building

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was in Charlottetown Thursday to announce $48.8 million in spending for a medical school currently under construction in the city.

The Government of Canada is putting up $19.5 million, the Prince Edward Island government is giving $16.2 million and the University of Prince Edward Island is contributing $13 million.

Freeland said it’s a commitment to strengthen public health care.

"By training health-care professionals right here on Prince Edward Island, UPEI will help Islanders access the high quality, public, and timely health care they — and all Canadians — deserve,” said Freeland.

Officials say the spending will create a key piece of infrastructure for the long-term development of a Faculty of Medicine program at UPEI. The program is set to accept its first cohort in September 2025, through a joint accreditation with Memorial University of Newfoundland.

"Is it going to change people's lives today, when they're trying to get a family doctor, or when they go to emergency? No, to be honest, it won't. But I think the right thing to do, the responsible thing to do, is what everyone in this room has done,” said Freeland.

The funding announcement comes about a month after the CEO of Health PEI raised concerns about whether the medical school would be feasible on the island.

“Right now, we’re asking all of our doctors to do 150 per cent clinical work, so how on earth are we going to start pulling back our doctors to enable them to do teaching without doing massive backfilling?” Dr. Michael Gardam asked a provincial health committee in February.

“I really struggle with figuring out, the way our current system is, how we would possibly be able to recruit, and frankly, pay for all of these doctors that need to come to the island in order to do the education,” Gardam continued.

The new five-storey, nearly 133,000-square-foot energy-efficient facility is expected to provide spaces where simulations, clinical learning and academic anatomy learning will be able to take place for medical students, according to a news release from the P.E.I. government.

The province also says students in other health programs like nursing, nurse practitioner and paramedicine will be able to use the facility.

It will also house an expanded UPEI Health and Wellness Centre, which the province says will transition to a patient medical home and on-site psychology clinic. According to the province, it will serve more than 10,000 patients annually.

On Feb. 13, Canada’s premiers accepted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's 10-year health-care funding offer. P.E.I. is expected to receive $1 billion over 10 years from the deal.

The $196.1-billion federal offer to assist ailing health systems presented at an in-person First Ministers' meeting in February includes both increases to the amount budgeted to flow through the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) as well as $25 billion for bilateral deals tailored to each province and territory's health-care system's needs.

With files from CTVNews.ca