Quebec med students on the cusp of losing a year

The dean of medicine at the University of Sherbrooke says a bitter dispute between medical specialists and the province means students are perilously close to losing their school year.

Quebec medical specialists have locked horns with the provincial government in a contract dispute that reaches back to June 2006.

They stopped teaching medical school courses in the fall as a pressure tactic for higher wages.

Quebec's Essential Services Councilordered the doctors to abandon their boycott and resume teaching, but it was too late for some medical schools, where certain clinical rotation programs have been cancelled.

The University of Sherbrooke hasn't reached that point yet, but the situation is deteriorating day by day, says the dean of the school's medical faculty.

"By next Monday, for most of our [students], it's going to be a very bad situation that will jeopardize their promotion," Rjean Hbert told CBC.

Specialists who teach at the University of Sherbrooke are paid for their pedagogy, unlike other doctors at other schools, who teach on a volunteer basis.

As at other universities, doctors in Sherbrookehave not returned to the classroom yet. Some clinical rotations atLaval and l'Universit de Montral have been cancelled for the year. Programs elsewhere remain under threat.

Students are being held hostage by the labour conflict, and at least half of Sherbrooke's graduates this year may be sacrificed, Hbert warned.