The founding dean of Canada's newest medical school says he will know later this month if its opening will be postponed for a year.
The delay is being considered because of teething problems related to creating the unique school — the first in Canada to have 2 distinct campuses (in Sudbury and Thunder Bay, Ont.) and to focus solely on rural medicine.
“We are reviewing the risks and benefits [of a postponement] at the moment,” Dr. Roger Strasser, dean of the Northern Ontario Medical School (NOMS), told CMAJ Apr. 14. The opening had been planned for September 2004, but the school received a setback when 2 newly hired campus deans quit shortly after accepting their posts.
Dr. Louis Francescutti spent only a few days on site at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay before resigning. Dr. Tim Allen resigned as campus dean at Laurentian University in Sudbury the same week the Canadian Journal of Emergency Medicine (CJEM) carried a full-page article announcing his arrival at NOMS. He had been on the job 2 months on a part-time basis. In a letter to CJEM, he said he left because “unforeseen circumstances made me realize that I would be unable to fulfill my mandate in a manner acceptable to my standards and to the needs of the medical school.”
Strasser said the resignations were “clearly something we weren't expecting” but added that they caused no delays. Dr. Arnie Aberman, former dean of medicine at the University of Toronto, is now acting as campus dean in Thunder Bay on a temporary basis, and Strasser says a full-time replacement for Francescutti will be in place there within 2 to 3 months. In Sudbury, the campus dean's duties “have been redistributed” among some newly hired associate deans. One, Dr. Jill Konkin, is president of the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada.
Strasser said the resignations “clearly caused some concern,” but support from residents of Northern Ontario “has been overwhelming.” — Patrick Sullivan, CMAJ