Medical school enrolment growing too slowly?
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* Patrick Sullivan

The Association of Canadian Medical Colleges says enrolment at Canada's 16 medical schools attained its highest level since 1987 during the 2000/01 academic year, with first-year enrolment reaching 1776 students. This compares with 1656 students in 1999 and 1576 in 1995 — the low-water mark set after provincial governments implemented enrolment cuts during the 1993 academic year. In 1987, first-year enrolment stood at 1786 students.

However, even though the additional 120 students accepted this year represent a 7.2; increase in enrolment — this is equivalent to the annual output of the University of British Columbia medical school — an expert on these issues says the growth rate is too slow. “The only province that has been moving quickly is Alberta,” says Toronto cardiovascular surgeon Hugh Scully, the CMA's immediate past president. He praised Alberta for the increases it announced on both sides — undergraduate and postgraduate — of the training equation.

Two years ago Scully cochaired a Canadian Medical Forum task force that called for a 20.7; increase in undergraduate enrolment, to 2000 first-year positions, by the start of the 2000 academic year. The task force said the increase was needed to deal with Canada's aging population, aging physician workforce, physician migration and a worsening physician shortage.

Alberta's 2 medical schools have enjoyed the largest enrolment increase. First-year undergraduate enrolment now stands at 227 students, up 25% from a year earlier. Enrolment in Quebec's 4 medical schools now stands at 541 students, a 20% increase since 1998, while enrolment in Ontario's 5 schools rose by 9% this academic year, to 586 students. No increases worth noting were posted elsewhere.

Scully, who is cochairing the Canadian Medical Forum task force that is currently developing a human resource strategy for physicians, says staffing issues are going to dog most health care professions for the foreseeable future. “The reality,” he adds, “is that nursing is in an even worse way than medicine.”

![Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/https://www.cmaj.ca/content/cmaj/164/9/1334.2/F1.medium.gif)

[Figure1](http://www.cmaj.ca/content/164/9/1334.2/F1)

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