September 18, 2024
On Sept. 10, NCAFP Exec. Vice President and CEO Greg Griggs joined two NCAFP members, Dr. Hershey Bell and past NCAFP president Dr. Chuck Rich, at the ground-breaking ceremony for the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley School of Medicine in Fayetteville. The ceremony gathered the leadership of Methodist University, Cape Valley Health, and the coming medical school to begin the construction on the future school, which will be completed in time to welcome the first class of medical students in July 2026.
According to its leaders, one of the key objectives for creating the medical school is to increase the number of health care professionals in Bladen and Cumberland counties. In Cumberland county, County Health Rankings reported that there was one primary care physician for 1,420 people in 2021. Dr. Rich, who began working in the area in 1989, says, “There are no more primary care physicians or providers than there were when I first started.”
When Dr. Bell, founding dean of the medical school, spoke at the ceremony, he emphasized the community benefit of these future physicians: “Today, we’re celebrating the groundbreaking of not just any medical school – it’s our medical school, Fayetteville’s medical school, Cumberland County’s medical school, and the entire Southeast North Carolina region’s medical school,” he said during his speech at the ceremony. “It will be the greatest honor of my career to introduce the first class when they arrive. They won’t be just any medical school students; they will be our future neighbors and physicians.”
Dr. Rich will serve as the school’s founding head of the Family Medicine division, and he shares Dr. Bell’s excitement for what these future physicians will do. “I’m excited about the school,” he says. “When I look at the need for more health care access in the southeastern part of North Carolina, this is part of the solution.” Historically, patients in these areas had to travel to Raleigh, Durham, and even Charlotte to receive medical care. But once the medical school begins embedding physicians in their own neighborhoods, Dr. Rich says that patients should face this obstacle less often: “Patients ultimately won’t have to travel as far. They’ll be able to get more primary care and more specialty care.”
Improving all communities’ access to affordable, comprehensive medical care is one key reason the NCAFP focuses on the future workforce of North Carolina family physicians. Our work in this area includes funding medical students interested in Family Medicine through scholarships; providing immersive training for them through both in-clinic summer programs and our Family Medicine Day event; supporting the physicians who precept for those students; and other objectives, all of which increase the number, expertise, and commitment of future North Carolina family physicians.
And so, we at the NCAFP are glad that both Dr. Bell and Dr. Rich will help lead this new medical school and train the future family physicians who will come through its doors, so that they can serve the communities where they eventually practice. Congratulations to Dr. Bell, Dr. Rich, and all the rest of the leaders who have worked to bring the new medical school to this part of North Carolina.
The North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians, Inc. (NCAFP) is a nonprofit professional association headquartered in Raleigh which represents over 4,300 family physicians, family medicine residents, and medical students across the state. It is the largest medical specialty association in North Carolina and is a constituent chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians, based in Leadwood, KS.