Additional family physicians will be trained in a new facility at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University.

The Ontario government today announced that $6.9 million will be given to McMaster's medical school to increase the number of family medicine resident positions and for a new facility to consolidate training in one location. The funding is part of a $33-million investment announced today for a provincial government initiative to support the training of new family physicians and improve health care.

At McMaster there will be $3.9 million over the next three years to provide for the training of an additional 22 first-year family medicine residents by 2006. Previously, the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine had 41 first-year family medicine resident places.

There will also be $3 million in capital funds to provide a new facility. The family medicine residency program is currently housed at four sites across Hamilton. Residents work at hospitals and family practice units across Hamilton, with some students, through the McMaster Community and Rural Education program (MacCARE) at sites in Guelph, Kitchener-Waterloo, Brantford, and St. Catharines.

“This is great news for the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine, for McMaster, for Hamilton and for Ontario,” said John Kelton, dean of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.

“This dramatic expansion in family medicine resident places will allow us to have more involvement in primary care, not just in Hamilton, but also in St. Catharines, Burlington, Branford and Kitchener-Waterloo.”

He pointed out that traditionally more graduates of the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine go into family medicine than the national average. Last year 46 percent of the McMaster graduates went into family medicine, compared to 33 percent of medical graduates across Canada.