September start for new medical college

Students begin enrollment at TUSOM

Trinity University School of Medicine (TUSOM) will begin operating here in St Vincent in September, just as they said they would – but all has not worked according to plan.{{more}}

For starters, TUSOM had hoped to be able to purchase the property at Ratho Mill that is owned by St George’s University, which ceased operating here in 2007 after 29 years, but that did not work out.

TUSOM was not willing to pay the price that was being quoted by St George’s for the plant, so instead, the school will operate out of a property at Harmony Hall.

When SEARCHLIGHT contacted Dr Bill Clutter, the Vice President of the Miami based TUSOM, he said that they “purposely” didn’t take the Ratho Mill campus because “we thought they (St George’s University) were asking too much for it.”

He said that in addition to what St George’s was asking, TUSOM would have had to spend a further $1.5 million to get it “up to shape.”

He told SEARCHLIGHT that all seems set for classes to begin on September 8, as they had planned. However, while they had planned to begin the first semester with around 50 students, the first class is expected to have between 30 and 35 students instead.

Dr Clutter said that enrollment is going well for the school, so he anticipates that the projection that he made earlier this year when he spoke to SEARCHLIGHT to see the student body climb to about 1000 in about three years’ time is still on stream.

He admitted that the school was experiencing some problems securing a lending institution to take on their student loan programme, which affected enrollment somewhat. This, he said, has, however, been rectified.

As for concerns that TUSOM, being a new institution, may not be able to attract the type of student body that will be beneficial to homeowners who were left hanging when St George’s pulled out, Clutter said he understands the concerns but that they are unnecessary.

He claims that of the three medical schools that were recently opened in Caribbean countries, TUSOM will have the highest first semester class.

St George’s University, through its affiliate the Kingstown Medical College, is said to have contributed some $22 million annually to the economy of St Vincent and the Grenadines, including $400,000 per year in rental income to some 60 or so homeowners.

If what Bill Clutter is saying is the truth, these homeowners will be back in business in about two years’ time, and more apartments will be needed in three years’ time.

“All of these (homeowners), it will be our first priority to place students there once our class fills up. We hope to have enough students to fill all of those apartments that they have built and more,” Dr Cutter told SEARCHLIGHT earlier this year, and he reiterated similar sentiments again earlier this week.

The news of TUSOM’s launch was confirmed by Minister of Health Dr Douglas Slater. He told SEARCHLIGHT that he is pretty confident that TUSOM would begin operation on schedule.

As for the search for another medical school to operate out of the modern Georgetown Medical Complex, currently under construction, Dr Slater said that talks are being held, but that these talks were still very much in their infant stages.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves mentioned that negotiations were on the way when he toured the construction site of the medical complex last Monday as part of his tour of government building projects on the Windward end of the island.

Dr Gonsalves said that when the Georgetown Medical Complex is completed in a year’s time, it would be the most modern medical facility in the country, though it would be smaller than the Milton Cato Memorial hospital.

The facility, which is the vision of Prime Minister Gonsalves and former Cuban president Fidel Castro, will house an ophthalmology treatment centre, as well as a Kidney Dialysis centre.

The Prime Minister explained that the equipment which had recently been brought in and is being used by Cuban doctors attached to the Vision Now programme will all be transferred to the Georgetown facility when it is up and running.