Gritman CEO urges retention of WWAMI medical students

Gritman Medical Center CEO Kara Besst spoke about the importance of WWAMI medical students for Idaho and the hospital in Moscow. She made these comments during a League of Women Voters forum on Wednesday. Besst addressed recent Idaho legislation that could affect funding for the WWAMI program. This program is a partnership with the University of Washington that provides medical training to students from five states: Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Recently, the Idaho House passed House Bill 368. This bill proposes to cut at least 10 medical student slots from the WWAMI partnership. Idaho currently has the lowest number of physicians per person in the country. Besst highlighted a nationwide doctor shortage and pointed out the long training time needed to become a doctor, which can take 8 to 10 years. She stressed that losing medical students from the WWAMI program would be very harmful to the local community, noting that most of the hospital's providers come from this program.