The group representing medical students in Canada says P.E.I. shouldn't force Island medical students who attend Memorial University to come home to practise.
Island taxpayers pay $800,000 a year to the Newfoundland medical school. Part of that funding guarantees four Island students a seat in the program each year.
The cost is about $50,000 per student annually. That money goes directly to the university to help defray the cost of tuition for all students, not just Islanders. None of the provincial money is used to reduce tuition costs for P.E.I. med students.
Health Minister Doug Currie said asking graduates to practise for three years on P.E.I. is the best way for Islanders to see a return on that money.
The minister was in Newfoundland last weekend talking to students about practising on P.E.I. He told CBC News Monday that it wasn't well-received.
Will Stymiest of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students said forcing new physicians to work anywhere does not ease the physician shortage.
“It'll just become a revolving door of physicians coming and then once their term is over they leave the province,” he told CBC News.
Currie said Islanders are not getting much from the current investment at Memorial University.
“We've made millions and millions of dollars in investment with the return of potentially one student in the last 10 years,” Currie said. “So as the minister I think it is a fair question to look at opportunities to capture a return on [the] investment ... we are making."
Stymiest didn't agree.
“University education in Canada is a publicly-funded system. It is funded by provinces and by governments. I think this is just a part of that in a professional capacity,” Stymiest said.
Currie disagrees with the federation, saying costs per capita for medical students are nowhere near the costs of a university degree.
He added Island students can attend any other medical school with no strings attached.
“Those students that choose to compete with students at the University of Toronto, and Queens [University] and the University of Ottawa have every right to do that and wash on their opportunity at Memorial, so that's their prerogative,” Currie said.
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