Northern Ontario Medical School Officially Opens

Even though it just had its grand opening Tuesday, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine is already putting a dent in the doctor shortage in Northern Ontario, provincial Health Minister George Smitherman said. “We already know anecdotally that some communities have had a little bit more success at attracting new doctors, because they’re excited about the chance to be part of the faculty of the medical school,” Smitherman said by phone from Toronto. The school has also attracted students who are more likely to practise medicine here in the future, he added. “Already we see in the first-year class very strong representation from the North, and very strong representation of aboriginal students,” he said. “These are two pretty good pieces of evidence that this is going to be an impactful event for the North.”

Premier Dalton McGuinty, federal and provincial cabinet ministers and aboriginal leaders were among the speakers at Tuesday’s grand opening. The two-hour-long ceremony was hosted jointly by the Lakehead University and Laurentian University campuses of the school.

This is the first medical school to open in Canada since 1969. It was originally meant to be based at Sudbury’s Laurentian University, with Lakehead serving as a satellite campus, in 2001. After intensive lobbying from local representatives, the government of Ernie Eves made Lakehead an equal partner in the school the next year. The mission of the medical school is to train doctors to serve in Northern Ontario communities. Students were recruited with an eye for those who were from the North, including francophones and aboriginals. The curriculum was built from scratch to prepare students for the unique circumstances they’d face here.

“The challenges, rewards and satisfaction of being a physician in Northern Ontario . . . they’ll experience for themselves in a range of communities, small and large, across Northern Ontario,” said Dr. Roger Strasser, the school’s founding dean.

Tuesday was an emotional day for Dr. John Augustine. He first campaigned for a medical school in Thunder Bay in 1969, and he chaired the committee to develop the school starting in 1999. “Really, it’s hard to believe,” he said. “You keep your eye on this and you hope for this. “I’m sorry to be such a slow worker,” he added jokingly. Augustine never gave up on the school because he was convinced training doctors in the Northwest would be the best way to keep them here. “It’s well-known that if you train in a centre, you’re more likely to stay nearby the centre,” he said.

In his speech from Sudbury, McGuinty encouraged the first 56 students in the school to stay in Northern Ontario after they graduate. “I can tell you the North needs you, the North needs your skills, the North needs your commitment,” he told them. “I am urging you to consider a career right here in the North.”

That’s what Jeremy Larouche wants to do. The 24-year-old grew up in Thunder Bay and wants to practise medicine in Northwestern Ontario. Now he’s one of 24 med students studying at Lakehead.“The focus on the North is definitely what brought us all here in the first place, and the desire to help and to want to participate in developing these new services for the North,” he said. He said he’s learned a lot in the week since he started classes, especially with a format that emphasizes interaction with other students. “Some people have backgrounds in nursing, some have engineering backgrounds, some have PhDs in anatomy,” he said. “What makes it really fascinating is the fact that we all bring our different life experiences to the table, and that really shapes how we’re learning and what we’re learning.” And while numerous technical glitches snagged the grand opening proceedings, there haven’t been many to speak of in class, he said. “There’s a couple small growing pains that you’d experience no matter where you went,” he said. “But problems we discover are addressed almost instantly.”

The Ministry of Health will monitor the school’s progress over the years to see if the graduates add to the ranks of doctors serving the North, Smitherman said. Augustine thinks they will. “My prediction is within the next 10 or 20 years, we’ll either see a second school like this in Canada . . . or this school will be growing and growing,” he said. “It’s going to be successful, and they’ll see the need for it.”

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