New NOSM University dean has advice for Ford about GP supply

Although he’s not really sure why the province is aimed at banning international students from medical schoolGiven their small numbers, the new dean of Northern Ontario’s medical school has some advice on increasing the supply of family documents.

Dr. Michael Green took over NOSM University On November 1, when he became vice chancellor, dean and CEO, as successor to Dr. Sarita Vermawho is retiring after five years in this position.

Groen is the outgoing president of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and comes to the Northern Ontario School of Medicine from Kingston, where he was Chair of Family Medicine at Queen’s University.

He was made available to reporters on Friday in a virtual scrum on the occasion of his first day at NOSM University.

Sudbury.com asked Green what his advice would be for Premier Doug Ford to increase the number of primary care physicians in Ontario.

He said he is very pleased with the current expansion of medical education in Ontario, with the opening of two new medical schools in Ontario (at York University and Toronto Metropolitan University) and more seats for medical schools at existing schools.

NOSM University is expand to 108 seats in its medical school program, a complete doubling of the number of seats in the charter class of 2005, and an expansion of its graduate program.

Overseeing this expansion is Green’s priority in his new role, as well as developing a new strategic plan for NOSM University.

But “putting out the numbers is one thing,” Green said, adding that government funding is needed to provide community support to train all these new doctors as they go to hospitals and doctors’ offices to do their clinical internships.

“I would like to see support for the creation of community-based teaching units, what we call clinical teaching units,” he said, adding “support for us to enable our community teachers to have more students in the community and deliver care.”

Since its inception nearly two decades ago, Northern Ontario’s medical school has been all about community-based training for physicians.

But such training is not free, Green said, giving the example of a primary care physician who may need additional clinical space to accommodate students.

He said GPs need “support for their practice” because even once doctors are trained, they will not stay “if their working conditions are not good”.

Green also recommends “fair compensation” for physicians, “but the OMA (Ontario Medical Association) needs to sort that out with the province.”

Further expansion of NOSM University beyond current objectives would depend on all the above factors, he said:

We also asked Green about the recent high-profile announcements surrounding medical schools created by the Ontario government.

That includes banning international students from medical schools starting in fall 2026 and paying tuition for more than 1,000 students who commit to becoming general practitioners in Ontario.

Asked why he thinks the province is focused on banning international students from Ontario medical schools, even though there are only a small number of them, Green said, “I don’t really know what that’s about.”

NOSM University has no international studentsas applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents. In fact, 91 percent of the school’s students are from Northern Ontario.

“NOSM has no international students, and there are only 11 in all of Ontario,” says Green.

“They have three schools. My understanding is that these are so-called redundant positions, namely that they do not take seats away from Ontarians, but they are additional to what the medical school would normally offer.

“But we (NOSM University) don’t have them. We are focusing all our energies on training Canadian citizens and permanent residents for practice in the North.”

Green said he is pleased to see the expansion of the Stay and Learn program, which covers tuition and other educational costs, to include students who commit to becoming primary care physicians in Ontario.

He said medical students graduate with debt of up to $200,000 each. “So if you can take that pressure off of them, it’s one more thing that makes it easier to say yes to family medicine,” Green said.

Over the past two decades, NOSM University has had some success in reducing the physician shortage in Northern Ontario.

When students do both their medical school and residency training in Northern Ontario, 90 percent stay in the region. Overall, “it’s a little less, but in the long run it’s still more than half,” Green said.

Although he comes to NOSM University by way of Kingston, Green is no stranger to Northern Ontario. He practiced as a junior doctor at Moose Factory on the James Bay coast from 1995 to 2003.

He said he has already found a place to live in Thunder Bay, where one of NOSM University’s campuses is located, and is looking for another in Sudbury. He will travel back and forth between the two northern cities.

Green said his previous experiences in Northern Ontario will be extremely helpful, as he has already built relationships with other medical professionals in the area.

“Many of the physicians I worked with over those years, like me, have aged and moved to other positions, and they are now all over Northern Ontario,” he said. “So I’m really looking forward to connecting with them again.”

-With files from Canadian Press

Heidi Ulrichsen is assistant editor of Sudbury.com. She also covers education and the arts scene.