Governor eliminates funding to UC Riverside school of medicine
Published: Monday, May 31, 2010
Updated: Monday, May 31, 2010
As planning for the opening of UC Riverside’s School of Medicine continues, projected funding for the new institution has recently suffered a setback.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the $10 million that the University of California Regents had recommended to help get the medical school off the ground has now been eliminated in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s budget.
Kathy Barton, a member of the School of Medicine Planning Office, said that although the recommended $10 million was not accepted into the 2009 to 2010 California state budget, a request for funding has also been submitted for the 2010 to 2011 school year. Barton said that although the initially recommended $10 million was not approved the school of medicine is hopeful for the upcoming year.
“When the health care reform is enacted, millions of people will have more health care coverage […] we recognize that we will need more doctors for the newly insured,” said Barton.
A fact sheet composed by the UC Riverside School of Medicine states that Riverside and San Bernardino counties currently have 36 and 44 primary care M.D. physicians respectively per 100,000 people, among the lowest ratios of primary care doctors per capita in California.
Furthermore, Latinos and African Americans are vastly underrepresented in the physician workforce. While Hispanics comprise approximately 50 percent of the region’s population, 7 percent comprise the physician workforce.
The subjects of physician understaffing and lack of diversity within the medical field are issues that the UC Riverside School of Medicine plans to alleviate.
“The mission of the UC Riverside School of Medicine is to improve the health of the people of California and to serve