Toronto Metropolitan University’s new medical school in Brampton is a beacon of hope in a health care crisis
The province has promised to connect all Ontarians to primary care by 2029—just in time for TMU’s first graduating class of young doctors
In June, the Ford government assigned itself an Everest-like task: connect all Ontarians to primary care by 2029.
The system has been in free fall since before the pandemic. Today, there are more than 2.5 million patients in the province without a family doctor, and estimates suggest that by next year, that number will balloon to 4.4 million.
Related: “I’ve been a family doctor for more than 20 years. Now, I have no choice but to close my practice”
But, now, a beacon of hope out of Brampton. TMU’s new school of medicine in the former Bramalea Civic Centre is finally open. It’s the GTA’s first new med school in 100 years and the first to start undergrad and postgrad streams in tandem. The school’s inaugural cohort of young doctors should emerge in four years—just in time for the Conservatives’ self-imposed deadline. The clock is ticking.
Barry Jordan Chong is the city and real estate editor at Toronto Life. He lives and writes in Toronto.
