New SFU medical school could provide primary care to 30,000 patients

Details of behind-the-scenes efforts to establish British Columbia's second medical school are increasingly becoming public, including the possibility of family doctor access for thousands of Surrey residents at the Simon Fraser University campus.

Details of behind-the-scenes efforts to establish British Columbia's second medical school are increasingly becoming public, including the possibility of family doctor access for thousands of Surrey residents at the Simon Fraser University campus.

The information emerged through an exclusive one-on-one interview between CTV News and acting dean Dr. David Price at the Surrey Central complex. Price revealed that 48 spaces will be available for first-year medical students to begin their training in September 2026.

"We are very much on track, we've pulled out all the stops," he said, explaining that the university senate and board must formally approve the school, which is expected to happen by June. Price and his team expect to submit a detailed application to the Committee for the Accreditation of Medical Schools by August. 

Students will be trained in longitudinal, primary care, as family doctors who are considered generalist physicians; the schooling and residency takes approximately eight years.

The analogy of building the plane while flying it applies in this case: for the first few years, students will take classes at the existing SFU Surrey campus while plans are finalized and construction begins on the permanent medical school – which could have students treating patients hands-on much sooner than the traditional training model.

"What I would really like to accomplish is to put a family medicine teaching clinic, which is inter-professional, team-based, right in the medical school," said Price. "(That would mean) 25,000 to 30,000 patients cared for by an inter-professional team, full-time faculty ... supervising the student physicians."

Surrey's mayor is enthusiastic about the prospect of the teaching clinic and revealed there have been numerous meetings about the school's makeup and its impact on the local community.