UPEI delays accepting 1st medical school students until fall of 2025

The opening of the new medical school at the University of Prince Edward Island has been delayed by an additional year.

UPEI's interim president, Dr.Greg Keefe, made the announcement in a news release late Thursday afternoon.

Instead of welcoming students in 2024 as most recently planned, the first intake of students will happen in August 2025.

When plans for the joint medical degree program with St. John's-based Memorial University were unveiled in October 2021, the first students were expected in the fall of this year.

"To meet accreditation timelines, we needed to guarantee by the end of this month that the on-campus facility would be complete by summer of 2024," Keefe said in Thursday's news release.

"With the late start to the construction process, coupled with challenges related to winter construction in our environment, we are unable to do this. We are, therefore, moving the admission date for the first group of students to 2025."

News of the delay comes in a week when pointed questions were asked about whether the province can handle a medical school at this time.

Family doctors are increasingly scarce compared to the number of Island residents without a primary care option 27,417 people,according to the province's patient registry.

"Doctors currently working on P.E.I. will have to find time to assist in the training of the medical school's students," the president of the Medical Society of P.E.I., Dr. Krista Cassell, told CBC News on Monday.

"Our medical system is struggling a little," she said. "We're struggling with resources, we're struggling with space, infrastructure needs. Physicians currently feel that it's a bit difficult to do the job that we have to do now."

Another skeptic of the earlier timeline for the medical school was Health P.E.I. CEO Dr. Michael Gardam, who expressed concerns about the load on the province's physicians earlier this month.

Adding a medical school to P.E.I. is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the province and something that cannot be rushed.Dr. Michael Gardam

Thursday's UPEI statement quoted him as as welcoming the delay, saying: "Adding a medical school to P.E.I. is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the province and something that cannot be rushed."

Keefe's statement said the new timeline for the medical school will let UPEI and Health P.E.I. assess the results of a study on how medical students will flow into the province's health-care system.

"With the new timeline, residency programs will not be required until 2029," it said.