September 23, 2025
Dear clinical faculty and students,
With the work action of the Fédération des médecins spécialistes du Québec (FMSQ) continuing into its second week, the UGME team is working night and day to mitigate the impacts on our students. We have reached a point where the halt in supervision by specialist physician faculty members means many rotations for clerkship students will be incomplete and will need to be rescheduled.
Members of the Fédération des médecins omnipraticiens du Québec (FMOQ) are voting today on whether they will also halt educational activities as a pressure tactic. If they do, the UGME team will be in touch with students via email to provide additional guidance.
As we look for solutions, our guiding principle is to ensure that we provide our students with the quality of education needed to set them up for success as physicians, which includes meeting national accreditation standards. We will work to be as flexible as possible without compromising quality.
We have heard that Med-4 students are understandably very concerned about the potential effects on their graduation and residency. There is some time between the normal end of the curriculum and the start of residency where rotations can be rescheduled, so we are not yet at the point where graduation would necessarily be delayed.
The clock is ticking, however. The presidents of the four universities with medical schools sent a letter to Ministers Dubé and Biron on Friday to explain the serious impact of the FMSQ pressure tactics on medical students across the province. We continue to advocate fiercely for our students with the government and the federations representing physicians in Quebec to resolve their differences as quickly as possible.
We think we can say that everyone in the School of Medicine – students, clinical faculty, staff – is upset by this situation. We all want to see the vital role played by clinical faculty in medical education better recognized. We all want students to get the high-quality clinical training for which 91Ö±²¥ is known and to continue to be successful in the next steps of their training. We all want to improve health care in Quebec. Excellence in education and research ensure excellence in health care, today and for the future.
If you are finding this situation difficult, please remember that links to resources where students and faculty can find help are on the School of Medicine website, as well as the latest messages, FAQs and contacts.
Lesley Fellows, MDCM, DPhil
Vice-President (Health Affairs)
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
and Health Sciences
Mélanie Mondou, MDCM
Associate Dean
Undergraduate Medical Education