Support Arambula’s med school battle

Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula deserves a standing ovation for his vision and recognition that Fresno is in dire need of a medical school. Even more important, he is willing to stand up and fight for it! Kudos.

We ship out our brightest students to complete their medical education in other areas of the state and beyond, with most never returning. Even worse, we have a desperate shortage of doctors per capita locally; regrettably, many are near retirement age. Our hospitals cannot recruit enough doctors to serve patients.

Arambula realizes it is disastrous to wait on the traditional University of California or California State University systems. My hope is that private efforts like the California Health Sciences University, combined with public support and partners, will accomplish getting a medical school in the Fresno/Clovis area in record time and at half the cost. There is evidence that a high percentage of those newly graduated doctors will remain here.

I urge everyone to please support Arambula’s efforts to establish a medical school in this community now.

This story was originally published October 3, 2016 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Support Arambula’s med school battle."