Concerns over the quality of a Grenadian medical school which has linked with Bermuda College spilled into Parliament this week.

The College has formed a partnership with St. George's University (SGU) in Grenada which will make it easier for Bermudians to pursue medical and veterinary degrees at the school.

There are already seven Bermudians studying at SGU and one graduate is currently doing post-graduate work in a New York hospital.

But critics are saying the College should be aiming to form partnerships with schools that have established reputations for excellence rather than 'second choice' schools and on Monday Shadow Health Minister Michael Dunkley raised the issue during the Health Ministry debate.

"I would like to stress when we make these medical alliances, we should make them with quality educational institutes because Bermuda is a first class business destination and a first class visitor destination and Bermudians have a high regard for our Island," Mr. Dunkley said.

As such, Bermudians have high expectations from their health care providers, he said, and he questioned whether SGU could meet these expectations.

Mr. Dunkley quoted from an article in The Royal Gazette last week where a representative from SGU admitted the school has had a reputation for being a "safety" or "fall-back" school for Americans who could not get into US schools.

"We should give people the opportunity to go to college," Mr Dunkley added, under heavy heckling from Government MPs, "but we should convince them to go to the best school they can."

He added: "All too often Bermudians will take the path of least resistance but there are thousands of good schools out there."

Voicing similar concerns, local physician Dr. William Cooke - who is also the brother of former Bermuda College president Dr. George Cooke - wrote to The Royal Gazette last week.

Dr. Cooke said he understood SGU was founded in 1976 at the initiative of an American lawyer whose son could not get into medical school.

Concerns over the school were discussed at a Commonwealth Caribbean Medical Association (CCMA) meeting he attended in Jamaica during the early 1980s, he wrote.

"The Caribbean delegates were concerned about negative effects on their own academic institutions," Dr. Cooke added. "The American officials welcomed this Caribbean initiative as their hands were tied by an injunction preventing action after a ruling that 'curtailment of medical schools was an unfair restriction of free trade'.

"They reported that American and Canadian medical schools were producing more than enough physicians for this over-doctored jurisdiction.

"It was expected that the large number of Americans attending these unaccredited extra-territorial schools would eventually force a political solution to the problem of their lack of conventional qualifications."

Dr. Cooke admitted however that he had little knowledge of SGU's development since that time.

"I have no information on the evolution of St. George's University over the recent years, and perhaps it is now a worthy institution," he wrote.

But, he suggested other schools may have been more appropriate for linkages.

"Bermudians students have long been successful in well-established, academically superior institutions and I would have expected Bermuda College to aim higher," he said.

However, supporters said this week the quality of graduates SGU is now producing as a better indicator of the school's suitability that problems which occurred 20 years ago.

Speaking in the House, Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown - also a practising physician - said standards for graduation and medical licensing are much more important that standards for entry to medical school.

"In the beginning of the school's history, there were more qualified applicants for (American) medical schools than there were positions available," Dr. Brown said.

He said SGU was founded to address that problem and it had nothing to do with the quality of physicians the school produces.

The standards for graduation are much more important than those for entry, he continued: "I want the best people graduating."

SGU graduates actually bested their American counterparts in terms of their pass rate for the United States Medical Licensing Exams (USMLE) last year, the school's representative pointed out last week in The Royal Gazette.

SGU graduates had a 93 percent pass rate on USMLE which was better than any American school.

SGU medical students also do part of their training with hospitals in the United States and the United Kingdon and are routinely accepted in US residency programmes.

The school also has a well developed visiting professor programme, SGU's registrar Margaret Lambert told The Royal Gazette last week, under which instructors from many US Ivy League schools teach at the school every year.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann also referred to the school's record for passing medical boards when asked if there were concerns in the medical community with regard to the college establishing a link with SGU.

"One has to look at what happens with the graduates," Dr. Cann said.

"Whether these graduates get into approved residencies and pass the relevant national boards is very important.

"That should be the yard stick used to measure which medical schools are producing people that are well-educated and have received a quality education."

Dr. Cann said all Bermuda's physicians complete overseas residencies as there is no training programme on the Island.

"For a physician, medical school is important but equally important is the practical training that is done through the residency," Dr. Cann said.

And as long as SGU graduates are accepted into acceptable residency programmes and pass medical licensing exams, there is little reason to be suspicious of their qualifications.

Bermuda's current crop of physicians undertook residencies in many countries around the world, he added.