SASKATOON – The University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine has a plan and is now beginning the implementation process after being placed on probation in October.
The Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools said the school isn’t up to standards.
“We have an obligation to the government, and to the people of this province to fix our college,” said Martin Phillipson, the college of medicine’s vice prevost.
The committee noted a number of problems, including medical students’ poor performance in standardized testing.
“The exam performance is not a reflection of students’ ability, it’s just that we don’t prepare them well enough for that exam, the new curriculum will prepare them much better,” said Phillipson.
A university council meeting on Oct. 24 marked the end of the college’s planning stage. Now, the college is moving forward with its implementation stage.
“Historically, we’ve spent too much time looking after our university-based faculty and not enough time looking after our community-based faculty and we want to merge those groups into a much stronger cohort,” said Phillipson.
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The college is the first medical school in Canada to be put on probation twice.
Phillipson said it’s definitely not a lack of funding.
“We have one of the highest academic salary budgets of any medical school in Canada, if not the highest,” he explained.
According to Phillipson, the main reason why the college is on probation lies with faculty accountability.
“Most of our full-time faculty, this year, they’ve said that they will spend less than five per cent of their time on undergraduate teaching,” he explained.
The Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) says the college’s doors haven’t always been open to help from the province’s wider medical community, but now the welcome mat is out.
“Now with a team approach to getting the college of medicine stronger, newer, more responsive to the needs of ‘the age,” said SMA President Clare Kozroski.
“We now have a community-based system going forward.”
Now that there’s a solid plan for fundamentally restructuring is in place, U of S medical student Drew Hager said he’s hopeful of the future.
“I think that they do a really good job of recruiting people that have been born and raised in Saskatchewan and do a really good job of giving them a good medical education,” said Hager.
Accreditors return to the college on Nov. 27 to examine the action plan.
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