SFU’s new medical school no blanket solution to healthcare crisis

The organization that represents physicians in the province warns that the new medical school at Simon Fraser University (SFU) is only one piece of a larger puzzle to solve the healthcare crisis in B.C.

Charlene Lui, the president of Doctors of BC, says that SFU’s new school will help to elevate the family doctor shortage.

However, she notes how much time will pass between the first generation of students being accepted to the medical school and them joining the healthcare workforce.

“Unfortunately, it will take years for the first graduates to join the workforce,” she said.

“Because our healthcare system is so complex, even with the addition of the doctors in this medical school, B.C. will still, unfortunately, continue to experience physician shortages in the foreseeable future.”

Lui says additional government investment is needed to attract and retain physicians.

“We also need government investment to attract physicians from elsewhere and ensure our graduates who are trained here stay in B.C. It is a complex issue,” she explained.

Additionally, Lui says that another challenge will be finding enough physicians to train the next generation.

“There’s already a shortage of faculty and professors at the medical school at UBC. Adding this new medical school will just take some careful consideration about how to get physicians to teach these new medical students,” she said.

SFU’s School of Medicine is scheduled to commence in spring 2026.

It will be located in Surrey, and it will be the first to open in Western Canada in over 50 years.

The school is now accepting applications.

B.C. Premier David Eby explained that while the first cohorts will attend an interim space, a new, permanent home for the medical school is under development and expected to be completed in 2030.