Seeking to join the club

...Many Merced-area leaders want to bring a medical school to UC Merced.

Regents gave the Merced university the green light in 2008 to start work on a medical school, but those plans have since stalled.

“What’s frustrating is a medical school was always part of the vision of having UC Merced,” Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, said in a recent interview with the Sun-Star. “That obviously hasn’t happened. My perspective as an elected official who represents the Central Valley is we have a moral obligation to improve healthcare here and the vehicle we have to do it is the UC (Merced).”

U.S. Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, said more residency programs could bring more doctors to the area and having a medical school at UC Merced is a way to do that.

But it may never happen.

Within the last year, some UC officials have suggested a university medical school might not be the answer to the Valley’s doctor shortages...

Full story at http://www.modbee.com/news/article172160132.html