The governments of Canada and Prince Edward Island Dr. announced more than $48.8 million in joint funding for the new health education building that will house the new Faculty of Medicine on the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) campus.
“Islanders will benefit from this partnership between two of the finest post-secondary institutions in Atlantic Canada for decades to come. Having the ability to train doctors right here on the Island, in a state-of-the-art facility, will be significant for Prince Edward Island’s healthcare system. Our government will continue working with our partners to ensure Canadians can get the care they need, when they need it,” said Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities.
The funding will be key to the creation of the UPEI Faculty of Medicine. It will allow UPEI, in partnership with Memorial University of Newfoundland, to offer a joint Doctor of Medicine degree. The program will start in September 2025 under Memorial’s accreditation and will later become a fully joint program.
“The University is grateful to have both federal and provincial government support for this vital infrastructure that not only will support current and future training needs for a variety of health professions and practitioners in our community, providing much needed human resources, but will also add capacity to our health system by way of the patient medical home and on-site psychology clinic,” said Dr. Greg Keefe, President and Vice-President, University of Prince Edward Island.
The new five-storey, nearly 133,000-square-foot energy-efficient facility will provide spaces where simulations, clinical learning and academic anatomy learning will be able to take place for medical students and students in other interprofessional health education programs such as nursing, nurse practitioner, and paramedicine.
“This is a significant milestone in our province’s commitment to train, recruit and retain healthcare professions. This investment and the transformational change we are making in our healthcare system with medical homes and neighbourhoods will help create the safe, high quality healthcare system that Islanders need and deserve. Partnerships like this one show how important it is to have everyone working together toward our common goals,” said Dennis King, Premier of Prince Edward Island.
It will also house the expanded UPEI Health and Wellness Centre, which will transition to a patient medical home and on-site psychology clinic that will add much needed capacity to Prince Edward Island’s healthcare system. The facility will be a model for primary care delivery, improve community access to healthcare and provide service to more than 10,000 patients each year. This increased access will help reduce the waitlist for family doctors and relieve pressure on Island walk-in clinics, emergency rooms, outpatient departments, and physicians.
“The University of Prince Edward Island’s new Medical School Building is another example of our commitment to strengthen Canada’s universal public health care for people from coast-to-coast-to-coast. By training health care professionals right here on Prince Edward Island, UPEI will help Islanders access the high quality, public, and timely health care they—and all Canadians—deserve,” said Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.
Featured image: (UPEI)
