Achi news desk-
A second medical school campus is on track to open in Nova Scotia next year, with 30 seats for first-year medical students.
According to a Tuesday news release from the province, the new facility will open in the fall of 2025, with a focus on practicing in rural Nova Scotian communities.
The province will fund operations at the Cape Breton University (CBU) site – a partnership with Dalhousie University’s faculty of medicine – for two years. It will also fund five additional medical school seats at Dalhousie starting this fall.
As of April 1, Nova Scotia Health says there are more than 157,000 people on the province’s “Family Practice Registry Need.”
“We’re moving quickly to address the needs of Nova Scotians, and we’ve made a lot of progress in just one year to deliver on our promise to fix health care,” Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said in the statement news.
“A second medical school campus will make a big difference in improving access to care with more doctors for all Nova Scotians, and especially for those in rural parts of the province.”
The province says a new medical sciences building will be the cornerstone of Cape Breton’s medical campus, housing educational and research space to train the next generation of family doctors.
Their education will include special training in rural health needs such as aging, frailty and disease prevention, as well as Indigenous health and Nova Scotia African health.
The province says CBU’s health and counseling center will become a key clinical training facility and its expansion will address the growing demand for health care among students.
The new state-of-the-art campus for CBU was announced by the province in March 2023.
For full coverage of Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated page.
