Campus-wide cost cutting measures at University of California, Berkeley have many worried for the future of a unique medical school program, operated jointed with UC San Francisco, according to The Mercury News.
The Berkeley campus faces a $150 million budget deficit, due in part to construction projects and seismic-safety upgrades officials said, according to the report. UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof told The Mercury News the campus is spreading $20 million of the deficit across its various divisions. Those divisions can individually decide how to cut between 1 and 6 percent of their budgets, Mr. Mogulof said, according to the report.
The Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program, which sends about two-thirds of its annual graduating class of 16 into primary care jobs, falls under UC Berkeley's School of Public Health, which subsidizes $600,000 of the program, according to the report. The additional $1.3 million it takes to run the program is paid with student fees, according to the report. The School of Public Health has been tasked with cutting more than $1 million, which puts the subsidy at risk.
However, alumni and other health professionals expressed shock that such a small subsidy could dismantle the program or that the school would even consider cutting it considering the need for primary care physicians, according to the report. The Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program allows students to learn from each other by studying cases together under faculty supervision. They also take volunteer placements in clinics for youth, homeless and transgender patients, according to the report. It also requires students to earn a master's degree in health or science before hospital rotations, according to the report.
Linda Anderberg, communications director of the School of Public Health, told The Mercury News the school is looking for avenues to preserve the program and that its current and recently admitted students will be able to finish out the program, no matter what happens, according to the report.
The school also plans to cut 500 administrative positions, generating an additional $50 million, according to the report. The rest of the deficit will come from revenue raising initiatives and debt restructuring, according to the report.
More articles on integration and physician issues:
Why hospitals should keep their friends close, and their ASCs closer
7 steps for building a clinically integrated network
Why Mayo Clinic is picking up the check for physicians to dine together