WSU med school needed

Some writers ask why we need a Washington State University medical school. In 43 years, the University of Washington has not added seats, with the exception of WSU Spokane accepting students in 2008 for the first-year program. All WWAMI (Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho) states need more seats. With our population growth and retiring physicians, Washington should be graduating 440 doctors yearly. UW is graduating 120.

UW does a fine job, using a huge teaching hospital and much infrastructure. WSU proposes a community-based model, where existing medical resources are sites for training. More medical students require more residencies, but UW has neglected its promise to increase residencies across the state. Most residencies are within the Seattle-Tacoma metro area. UW promised to work on these issues by appointing a dean to serve on the Spokane campus. That was late last winter.

With perfect cooperation, Washington is still lowest in the country in educating physicians to serve our state. Complaints about two medical schools sound ridiculous when comparing our state of nearly 7 million with 120 entering freshmen yearly while North Carolina – almost 10 million residents – has four fine medical schools with 1,060 entering freshmen each year.

Linda Marler

Colfax