The state of Georgia is facing an extreme shortage of doctors, an ailment a new Athens medical campus hopes to treat.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the group responsible for accrediting the nation’s medical schools, reported earlier this month that the Medical College of Georgia is on track to accept students in the fall of 2010.

“This confirmation by the LCME is the result we have been working so diligently these past months to obtain,” said Erroll Davis Jr, chancellor of the University System of Georgia. “This strategic plan to increase the number of physicians in Georgia is of critical importance to our state and its citizens.”

“It’s been moving right along,” said Tom Jackson, vice president for Public Affairs. “This has been a priority with the state. Georgia has a serious shortage of physicians.”

Since the plan was approved 18 months ago, MCG and the University have been working together to open a MCG campus in Athens. To that end, the University has acquired the local Navy Supply Corps School for the campus and has been working with MCG to prepare it for students.

Until the Navy school has been prepared, MCG classes will be held in the O’Malley building. Renovations on the building, budgeted at $25 million, were recently completed. According to Krista Coleman-Silvers, project manager for the University Architects, the building will open as soon as it gets furniture.

“UGA is basically handling the facility, and MCG is basically handling admissions,” Jackson said.

The University is also helping to arrange clinical programs with local hospitals, an important aspect of the education of third year medical students.

Jackson explained that students attending the Athens campus will officially be MCG students because the program will operate under MCG’s accreditation. Still, the Athens program will work very closely with the University.

“It truly is a partnership between the two schools,” he said, highlighting the fact that MCG’s dean, Barbara Schuster, will report to both the University and MCG.

MCG officials will accept 40 students for the first semester at the Athens campus, and plan to bump that number up to 60 students per graduating class in the following years.

Georgia is the nation’s ninth highest populated state, but the sixth worst in physicians per capita according to the American Medical Association.

Jackson said this program should help change that. “The state of Georgia needs more physicians and this is a good way to do it,” he said.