Plan to expand medical school in Ga. moves another step forward

ATLANTA - Georgia's higher education system accepted a plan to expand the state's only public medical school in a hastily called meeting Monday timed to show solidarity before a round of crucial budget hearings.<br /> <br /> And although the Board of Regents stopped short of formally adopting the report's recommendations, Chancellor Erroll Davis said the board's action would send lawmakers a signal that the system is firmly behind plans to expand Augusta-based Medical College of Georgia and open a new campus in Athens.<br /> <br /> ``It gives us the ability to say to (lawmakers) we have your approval,'' Davis said.<br /> <br /> The report, drafted by private consultant firm Tripp Umbach, calls for the Augusta campus to increase enrollment from 745 to 900. The Athens campus would be run with the University of Georgia and would hold 240 students. Clinical sites in Albany and Savannah would also have an enrollment of 30 third and fourth year medical students each.<br /> <br /> Under the proposal, the Athens campus would begin enrolling 40 medical students annually next year and increase the entering class size to 60 in 2012 when it moves into the former Navy Supply Corps facility. The state would also need to build 60,000-square-foot medical research facilities in both Athens and Augusta by 2015, according to the plan.<br /> <br /> Regents and other supporters have warned that the state faces a shortage of doctors, and the report warns that a projected shortage of 2,500 physicians by 2020 could cost more than $5 billion a year in emergency room visits.<br /> <br /> But the proposed expansion ruffled feathers last year under the Gold Dome, where lawmakers were upset they weren't clued in on the plan soon enough, and in Augusta, where officials fear the upstart could eventually attract the lion's share of students and research money.<br /> <br /> The plan's backers have since promised to involve lawmakers in the planning and promised the new Athens campus would be run in a partnership with the Augusta school.<br /> <br /> But it remains to be seen whether state lawmakers will pony up the $10 million the plan requests to set up facilities and start recruiting faculty and administrators to run the Athens campus. Lawmakers devoted $2.8 million to the plan last year, and Gov. Sonny Perdue has proposed spending an addition $7.2 million for the plan.<br /> <br /> Ultimately, it could cost the state more than $1.3 billion in operating expenses and building costs for the expansion.<br /> <br /> ``This is an ongoing process,'' Davis said. ``There's no one Big Bang approval inherent in all of this. It's a long-term process.''<br /> <br /> ................................<br /> <br /> On the Net:<br /> <br /> University System of Georgia: http://www.usg.edu/<br />

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