Toulouse: the Faculty of Health, future campus for medical students, takes off
The Faculty of Health, created at the end of 2021 with the Paul Sabatier University, which merges the medical schools of Toulouse, is a first in France. But the administrative entity has still not settled the question of these future premises. Interview with Philippe Pomar, elected dean of this new structure.
Medicine, dental surgery, pharmacy, the faculties have merged in Toulouse and this is a first in France. What about its future premises, because the entity is currently only administrative?
There is indeed a real estate project which is adjacent to the Faculty of Health. For the moment, the site has not been but it will be created for the project chosen materially this Faculty of Health on a unique place. Because, it will only make sense if we manage to be together in the same place. Two sites have been selected: Rangueil and Langlade, near the Oncopole and the Marchant hospital. At the start, we wanted to give meaning to interprofessionalism and multidisciplinarity. So that we arrive at the old together all health professionals, with a common strategy, common objectives and a common vision. We know that today a patient can be taken care of by several health professionals on the same day, but in most cases, these health professionals have never met during their course. We want to make sense of that.
Why did the medical faculties of Toulouse choose to merge?
It was already a Toulouse specificity to have two faculties of medicine at the same university. It was complicated at the level of the management of our ministerial interlocutors, Region, rectorate and even the CHU. At the start, it was the fact of saying that we had to work together, because the patient in the end is the same. And also get out of this Rangueil medicine and Purpan medicine dichotomy. But what led the former deans to break up their faculty to form a single health faculty is interdisciplinarity.
Will all students be brought together on the same health “campus” in the future?
Nearly 16,000 students in fact. Before, everything was separate and the students never met. There, we will be able to set up a new pedagogical model, in particular cross-disciplinary programs, for health students and the entire medical profession. By making the student an actor in his training, with new economic, sociological and political schemes in health. At the same time, the faculty will acquire a university perspective on the territory to contribute to improving access to care. We can only do this if we move forward in a coordinated way.
An “emancipated” Faculty of Health, you say?
It is a faculty that is open: to technological sciences, hard sciences, human and social sciences and to sport. We do not want to be confined to the image of a faculty of medicine, dentistry, traditional pharmacy, it is a very broad opening with a scientific aspect and a very human and social aspect to also develop a culture of health. And new jobs.
Precisely, does this mean that the numerus apertus should be increased for students who wish to study medicine?
On an already increased numerus apertus in Toulouse, it is around 5% per year. But this is a non-issue. We may have broken the lock of the numerus clausus, but the problem is the reception capacity. Our faculties do not allow today, for simulations and practical work, to accommodate more students, unfortunately.
Successive governments, however, have continued to denounce medical deserts in rural areas?
Yes, and that’s why we want to develop this university perspective on the territory. See how we can organize internships in rural areas and also how we can work with the profession, the whole ordinal councils, etc. We have this concern in mind.
When will we see the walls of the future Faculty of Health in Toulouse grow?
It has been administratively created since the beginning of 2022. On March 31, the election of the dean by the Faculty Council took place. On April 4, the elections of the citizen directors of the departments took place. It works administratively, but it is a new model of organization, functioning and structuring. Many things will be stabilized at the start of the 2022 school year.