Caribbean diploma mills: St. George’s University in Grenada
As a former federal Chief of Staff at Health, and as someone who has represented the CMA, OMA, OHA and lots of hospitals – and whose Dad was awarded the Order of Canada for his bioethics work – I have always had more than a passing interest in medical education. It’s important.
Down here in the Caribbean for a few days, I’ve been overhearing some folks talk about “diploma mills.” And one name that has come up is St. George’s in Grenada. So I started Googling. The New York Times:
Their argument is one that has been lobbed at Caribbean schools for decades: that those schools turn out poorly trained students who undercut the quality of training for their New York peers learning alongside them at the same hospitals.
And they complain that the biggest Caribbean schools, which are profit-making institutions, are essentially bribing New York hospitals by paying them millions of dollars to take their students. The American medical schools traditionally pay nothing, because hospitals like the prestige of being associated with universities.
“These are designed to be for-profit education mills to train students to pass the boards, which is all they need to get a license,” said Dr. Michael J. Reichgott, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx.
I plan to write more about this in the coming days. It interests me.
One thing is apparent, so far: if you want a decent medical education, and you want to practice medicine afterwards, don’t go to a place like St. George’s down here in the Caribbean. It’s a diploma mill.