McGill med school put on probation

McGill University’s faculty of medicine was delivered a blow this week when the school was put on probation by the two agencies who accredit North American medical schools.

Based on a survey in March, the U.S. Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME) and the Committee on the Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools (CACMS) found the school deficient in 24 of 132 accreditation standards.

In another eight criteria, the school was considered compliant but in need of monitoring.

“The breadth and depth of these findings have seriously compromised the quality of the medical education program,” says a letter sent this week to McGill from the two agencies.

David Eidelman, dean of the faculty of medicine, was not available for an interview Thursday. The school held a special meeting Wednesday evening to address the committees’ findings.

“While the final decision is not what we had hoped, this feedback will help drive our ongoing efforts to strengthen the administrative policies and processes in place,” Eidelman wrote in a letter to students and staff posted online.

He said the school is undergoing a change in curriculum and the administration was not surprised that the agencies identified areas for improvement.

“I have no doubt we will work through this together in our ongoing pursuit of excellence, and I look forward to our next meeting with the LCME-CACMS accreditation team to demonstrate our progress,” he wrote.

Other medical schools

Founded in 1829, McGill’s faculty of medicine was the first in Canada. It is not the first to be put on probation.

The University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine has been on probation for two years.

The Saskatchewan facility was deemed weak or deficient in 10 standards, including faculty not providing timely feedback to students and clear grading objectives.

A site survey of the Prairie faculty was scheduled last month, with results expected this fall.

“Our College of Medicine remains fully accredited while we work to address the areas of concern. Probation does not equal loss of accreditation,” the faculty said on its website.

“The college’s number one priority is to permanently resolve our accreditation challenges….”

In 2009, LCME-CACMS put Dalhousie University’s medical school on probation, but it was fully accredited again in 2011.

McGill medical school’s deficiencies

Some of the concerns cited against McGill’s medical school by the two agencies appear largely administrative: a recurring issue with timetables and clear outcome markers; taking too long to provide final grades; limited library hours and Wi-Fi access.

Others were more serious.

Students reported inadequate instruction in women’s health and family and domestic violence, the committees noted.

There are frequent violations of the school’s workload policy in all rotations but psychiatry and family medicine, and students are reluctant to report these violations.

During their site visit, multiple students in the surgery clerkship told committee members that they cannot reach residents or staff at times when they feel they need supervision.

And committee members identified a number of issues at the faculty program in the Gatineau hospital, a small city in western Quebec, and say McGill will need to undertake a comprehensive review in Gatineau.

The decision can be appealed within 30 days. Otherwise, a consultation meeting will be held in September on the facility’s action plan to address concerns.

The school has been ranked No. 1 on Maclean’s magazine’s list of universities offering medical-doctoral programs for 11 years running, based on factors such as its student-to-faculty ratio, medical science grants, research dollars and a reputational survey.

McGill’s faculty of medicine has 18 to 24 months to show progress on the issues identified by the accreditation committees. The dean says a task force has already been established and the majority of issues will be addressed by the end of this year.