Physicians in Training

The University of British Columbia is home to the only Faculty of Medicine in British Columbia. It provides
innovative educational and research programs in the areas of health and life sciences through an integrated and province-wide delivery model. Founded in 1950 with a graduating class of 60 students, it now has more than 2,590 students at the undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate levels and provides teaching to several thousand additional students from other disciplines at UBC.

Some of their current intiatives are listed here, with links to their website.

More Doctors. More Care.
In January 2008, the Canadian Medical Association launched this campaign to focus attention on the serious doctor shortage that is crippling our health care system.

National Physician Survey
In 2004, the CMA partnered with the College of Family Physicians of Canada and The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada to conduct the most extensive survey of Canadian doctors ever undertaken. Some results and highlights from the 2007 update are now available.

Wait Times and Benchmarks
The CMA continues to work with other national medical organizations to lobby for implementation of wait time commitments made by the First Ministers in 2004 and to have new specialty areas added.

Committing to Healthy Kids
The CMA has partnered with the Canadian Paediatric Society and the College of Family Physicians of Canada to help our children become some of the healthiest in the world.

Pharmaceutical Issues
Every Canadian should have timely access to safe and effective prescription drugs, and no Canadian should be deprived of needed prescription drugs because of inability to pay.

The British Columbia Medical Association (BCMA) is a voluntary
association of British Columbia's physicians, medical residents, and
medical students. The BCMA has over 11 000 members, with about 8500 in
active medical practice. This represents approximately 95% of
practising physicians in British Columbia.

Governed by an
elected body of physicians, the BCMA represents the collective view of
the medical profession of British Columbia and negotiates for and on
behalf of physicians for their compensation. The Association is also
responsible for setting medical service fee schedules and negotiating
the schedule of benefits paid by the Medical Services Plan as well as
representing sessional, salaried, and other alternative payment
physicians.

The Association aims to advance the practice
and science of medicine and the health of British Columbians by working
for the improvement of medical education, health care legislation, and
the delivery of hospital and other health care services.

The
BCMA is separate and distinct from the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of British Columbia, which is the body established by the
Medical Practitioners Act to oversee the licensing and disciplining of
doctors.