Docherty hopeful BU med school takes off soon

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/01/2025 (415 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon University president David Docherty says he still has hope that one day, there will be a medical school on campus to train new physicians who will stay and practise in rural Manitoba.

Once up and running, the medical school will help ease the province’s doctor shortage and fulfil more than a decade-long dream of expansion at BU, he told the Sun.

“A number of years ago, before I had arrived in 2019, there had been plans for a medical school at Brandon University,” said Docherty, “and that was probably 12 to 15 years ago.”

Although that idea never came to fruition, Docherty added, the dream never died. And now there are plans to renovate BU’s 50-year-old Brodie Science Building, bringing BU one step closer to a new partnership with the Max Rady College of Medicine at the University of Manitoba (U of M).

“This is a massive undertaking,” said Docherty. “We’ve got Brodie, which is a large building and requires massive renovation, plus we’re building a new research complex that will be attached to the Brodie building that will house a med school.”

Chris LeMoine, BU’s dean of science, has been at the university for more than nine years and said Westman is ready for and needs a medical school. It will be offered in Brandon, and overseen by the U of M.

“We’ve seen quite a few of our own students making it all the way to U of M or other institutions, who are now practising doctors,” LeMoine said.

“Not everybody wants to live in a big city to go to medical school. So, this might support future students to do their studies in an environment that might be more comfortable for them.

“It’s not going to happen overnight, but I think everybody’s willing to work towards it,” said LeMoine.

Docherty said the university has been working on a plan to renovate the Brodie building for several years, but the idea of incorporating a new medical school with ties to the U of M’s medical program has been in discussion for the last 12 to 15 months, Docherty said.

“In a conversation that I had with the president of U of M, and I said, ‘hey, what are your thoughts about a med school in Brandon?’” said Docherty. The two presidents continued discussions up to the 2023 provincial election.

Before the NDP was elected in October of that same year, Wab Kinew and his party “had indicated their support for a medical school in western Manitoba,” Docherty said.

“And so, when the NDP formed government we continued the discussion, and the three parties are working together to see how we can make this work,” said Docherty.

Additionally, the NDP’s budget, brought down in April 2024, included a commitment to increase funding to post-secondary education, with a promise for a new doctor training facility in Brandon.

No dollar value has been attached to the Brodie building’s renovations or for the construction of the addition, and there has been no specific funding announcement from the provincial government, which Docherty takes in his stride.

“People want an answer, they want the figures, and they want start dates. I wish life were that easy, but it’s a project that we’re moving ahead with, that everybody’s committed to,” he said.

“We’re not that far along that I would like to say a number in public, not because it’s going to scare people, but because in six months people may say, ‘What was Docherty thinking? This is far less,’ or, they’ll say, ‘In the past six months, this project has grown by ten million.’

“So, until we have a much better sense of what the actual costs are, I don’t think it would be in the best interest to share it.”

BU’s president added that within the next six months he and his team will have a better sense of the costs, as well as the architectural plans, including the “expansion’s footprint.”

If the medical school plans fall into place for BU, the satellite campus will be much like the Trinity School of Medicine in Orillia, Ont., which is connected to Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont.

Other examples include University of British Columbia in Vancouver, with medical school campuses in Victoria, Kamloops and Prince George.

Training students in Brandon who want to stay in Brandon will go a long way to help solve the doctor shortage in rural Manitoba but it’s just one part of the solution, said Dr. Nichelle Desilets, a Neepawa family physician.

Desilets was born in Saint Eustache, about 172 kilometres east of Brandon. She went to medical school in Calgary, Alta., followed by training in rural towns in Saskatchewan and “the Arctic,” with a residency in Prince Albert, Sask.

“There are lots of rural training programs that pump out excellent doctors,” said Desilets, who is the incoming president of Doctors Manitoba.

“Maybe we should have done this 10 years ago and then we wouldn’t be here, but I want to reinforce the importance of retention, because we need people to stay where they are.

“I had the privilege of interviewing at several medical schools, and I don’t remember very much about interviewing at the school that I chose, that I was lucky enough to get into, but I remember — it was the only place where everyone was smiling,” said Desilets.

“So, that’s something we can reflect on when we have medical students and learners. When someone new shows up and they’re keen and ready to learn, being in a positive environment where people love what they’re doing is going to make a big impact.”

» mmcdougall@brandonsun.com

» X: @enviromichele