I thought I would share it with students who were considering St. Chris.

-----Original Message-----
From: Allan G **** [mailto:a****@stchris.edu]
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 9:57 AM
To: Samara
Cc: **** *****, M.D.
Subject: Re: Questions and Concerns about St. Christopher's College of Medicine

Dear Samara

I have now had time to investigate all of you queries regarding St Christopher's College of Medicine. I wil now answer all the questions dilligently and as precisely as possible. I am glad to see a student who has taken the time to make sure he is joining the right institution, many a student has not been so dilligent to their cost.

I would like to address some phrasiology to begin with. Approval from any state in the USA as far as a medical school outside of the USA is concerned means that a school would like to do their clinical rotations;Residency and be Licensed in that state. Right now, most off-shore schools have variations of the three main reasons why students from the USA participate in off-shore programs.

New York; St Chris students are are allowed to do 12 weeks worth of clinical rotations in NY. As long as they do not exceed this, they will be eligible for Licensure, but they are not eligible for Residency. It is simply not the case that if you do not do your residency in NY, you cannot get Licensure, or NY would be in turmoil and have only 50% of the Physicians they need each year. We have not sent the actual application to the state department yet, but this will be in their hands by December 12th 2003. The reason they have not received this is simple. We are going for full approval in every state, but we are attempting one state at a time. Right now, we are completing our approval in New Jersey. The reason we can say completing without the state department not having details of our application is because the law regarding off-shore schools prohibited St Christopher's from even applying. Over the past 12 months, we have been lobbying to get the law changed through the committee's and and houses of congress so that our application wouldn't be a waste of time and effort. We have now had the law changed, I repeat, the law has now been amended so that St Christopher's application will proceed without hinderence, as the new law was written to encompass St Christopher's ease with their application, aided by the Speaker of the House Anthony Imprevaduto and Senetor Vitalli. This law has also been signed by the Governor (McGreevy) and will now filter its way to the state department. Its a long slow process, but when the state department receive our application, it should proceed with speed as the law was written to encompass St Christopher's. The "Bill' was passed unanimousley and can be checked. I will send you the details of which 'Bill' so that you can check this for yourself.

The 'Bill' will mean that St Christopher's will have Clinical Rotations; Residency and Licensure eligibility in the state of New Jersey. We now head for New York.

There are a few other states that have rules and regulations that mean nothing in terms of Academic prowess and standing of any institution. For example, some states want the first two years of your basic sciences completed in the country of origin of the Charter. This is true, but untrue. If a Government, like ours, states that the satalite campus in an extension of the school in the original country, and that the Board of Directors for the school include the Government Ministers themselves, and that St Christopher's College of Medicine is in actual fact Senegalese soil, the rule regarding being in the country of origin does not apply. Its like the US having an embassy in London, this building is considered US soil, even though its really UK soil. If a Government does not grant this status for a school, the rule does apply.

You must always be careful interpreting rules for licensure as they are misleading, especially if you ask the wrong question.

We now have graduates in many states. I think the Board of Directors will admit that they have not been keeping in touch with these residents to check on their progress, but its really a case of ''too much work to do'' ''not enough people to do the work''. St Christopher's is a rapidly growing institution, and has surpassed many of its long standing contenders, some in excess of 20 years old. This is because St Christopher's is dynamic, and is located in a first world country where facilities and resources are a plenty. We have now taken steps to get in touch with our existing residents, and will be producing a list soon on the web site. Currently we have residents in Maryland, Texas, Virginia, Nevada, Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois and a few others, but again, we have not been keeping up with where everyone is going. These residents have had no problems with first-choice locations.

Impossible states at the moment are California, New Mexico and Tennessee. But, we will be trying to change the law regarding these states when we come to them.

Our institution with having more than one campus do indeed share faculty, adminstrative and policies between them. Our new web site will show soon the pictures and credentials of all the staff and faculty. These will also incluse the Minister for Foreigh Affairs from Senegal.

St Christopher's will have the PhD and MPH programs up and running by September 2004. It is the task of one of our new staff to have postgraduate training in place by this time. This person will also be the research director, and will have these available by January 5th 2004.

Work on the current facilities will begin in two weeks. We tried to leave the work to the end of the semester as not to disturb the existing semester. Labs and extended facilities will all be in-place by January 5th 2004.

The current standing with students coming to St Christopher's for January is 94. Last semster it was 105.

Finally, please do not apologise for your lengthy email. You have a right to know all of the above when contemplating a medical career. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me. I will send you the bill number for the change in law in NJ.

Regards

Allan G ****
Managing Director (UK)

----- Original Message -----
From: Samara
To: 'a****@stchris.edu'
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 6:06 PM
Subject: Questions and Concerns about St. Christopher's College of Medicine


Dear Mr. Allan ****,

I will very soon be joining St. Christopher's College of Medicine in Luton, England as a basic sciences student. I had some concerns that have been manifested by my own research into possible states I would be interested in getting licensed. I was told that you are the Managing Director at St. Christopher's College of Medicine and therefore would like to ask you specific questions that you may be able to clear up for me and possibly allow me the freedom of enjoying some peace of mind before making such a huge commitment.

I am interested in obtaining my license in the states of New York or New Jersey, and I remember vividly being told on my interview day in October 2003 that your school is currently under the final stages of accomplishing a New Jersey approval. However, most recently, I felt compelled to validate this by calling the state licensing board. I called the NJ State Board of Medical Examiners at 609-826-7100 and spoke with both Ronald Calderon and than his boss, Ian Orr and to my surprise I was told there were issues that were not disclosed by your administration. In addition, he was not aware of any specific encounters with St. Christopher's College and any paperwork trail that he could verify was under process by St. Christopher's College of Medicine. This leads me to question whether I was correctly told of NJ's status on clinicals, residency, and licensure.

In addition to this finding, I was given a thorough explanation as to what the issue may lie ahead for graduates of St. Christopher's College of Medicine. NJ statute says that as long as a student begins his/her studies on or after the date St. Christopher's College of Medicine has received recognition in the WHO, than licensing in that state is achievable. However, there is currently a regulation that states something similar to this: "The first two years of didactic training must be in the location where the school confers the degree". Which basically means that it is expected that the student be at the school in Senegal for the full 2 years of basic sciences training. So, on the surface, graduates of St. Christopher's College of Medicine should be fine but due to this one regulation, there could be problems receiving licensure. This raises a big flag for me in terms of whether this is an issue in other states as well. I am very concerned about this and would greatly appreciate more concrete feedback regarding this. Are you aware of this regulation and whether this will be an obstacle to future graduates? If so, what is being done to resolve this issue and would it be realistically achieved before students graduate? Please also tell me whether Clinical Rotations (Clerkships) are approved for New Jersey as of today?

In addition, after speaking to the New York State Medical Examiners, I was told that there were NO applications on file submitted by St. Christopher's College. This was after I was told by someone in the New Jersey office that the application was sent in October. I would like to have all the correct information in front of me before I begin my studies. Please confirm what the status is on the New York Clinicals, Residency, and Licensure currently is.

I know that as of today, you have no licensed graduates to get a list of states as a benchmark for future graduates. But I would like to have an understanding of which states I would have relatively no trouble getting licensed. If you could look at this and provide me with your feedback, I would appreciate it:

1) Proven States - those where St. Christopher's grads have unrestricted licenses
2) Unproven but likely states - states do not yet have St. Christopher's grads but which have licensed grads from newly established schools (i.e. those other than SGU, Ross, and AUC). It might be useful for the less established schools to cooperate in creating such a list.

3) Unproven and Difficult States -
4) Impossible States - CA, NM, and others

I have a list of other questions below that I would also greatly appreciate answers to:

1) Is the Luton and Senegal campus one entity with one board of directors? I ask because here is a quote from a proposed legislation: "An institution with more than one campus shall have written policies and procedures governing the division and sharing of administrative and teaching responsibilities between the central administration and faculty, and the administration and faculty at the other locations."

2) Does St. Christopher's College have post graduate training? If not, are there plans to do that in the near future? (Texas requires this for licensing)

3) Why does St. Christopher's College NOT list professors names, curriculum, and credentials on the official website?
4) Is there currently an Active Research Department?
5) What states have graduates done residency in?
6) What states can students do clinicals in?
7) Will we have renovations and labs complete before the start of the January 2004 semester?
8) How many students have committed to St. Christopher's College of Medicine for the January 2004 term?

I apologize for the lengthy email, but I am really trying to make a more informed decision before making such a commitment. Please provide me with this information at your earliest convenience. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Samara

tennessee? if this is true it is a great example of how getting a residency license doesn't equal a permanent license. there is a guy on the UT website listed as a surg resident and a st chris grad. and, he left out kansas.

Exactly, something doesn't add up correctly. I can say personally that when I called the office, I was told it was only CA and NM. Kansas was only acknowledged when I made the reference to their law. Not to discredit the school, but the information I am getting doesn't all add up. Sorry.

I got the same info too.I hope they update there information soon.Does anybody know why an SC grad cant get a license Tenn.?

__________________
BillSal

"May the force be with you"

"The sole inevitability is the emergence of truth."

I wonder if he meant kansas and said tennesee instead? Maybe you could email him for a clarification?

__________________
BTS4202
St. Christopher's COM
4th Year
http://www.mdparadise.com

"If there really is a God, He has a lot of explaining to do"
- Dennis Leary

check this out too.

pretty impossible is my guess

Is Bill Clinton on the board of directors?

of course that depends on the meaning of the word "is"

St. Chris has diplomatic immunity in UK? hohoho...


I suppose he did say "If a Government...". But what a load of big pile of manure! Oops, make that soil.

It's ridiculous to compare "campus" with "embassy." An Embassy of a country is consider a sovereign soil of that country. A business location is just that, a business location, subject to every law/regulation of the country it's physically located in. So, if Mr. **** really thinks that ANY "government" will recognize SC-Luton as being on "Senegal soil," then he is either very uneducated or very delusional. Either way, it's not good.

P

__________________
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