JACKSON, Miss. (AP) -- Dr. Richard O'Callaghan is struggling to teach microbiology labs to medical students in a 1955 building. Dr. Anna Lerant's medical simulation program is squeezed into a warren of small rooms built for other things. <\/p>\n
Mississippi leaders say larger and more modern teaching space is on the way for those teachers and their students, part of a plan to further expand the number of physicians educated at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. <\/p>\n
Gov. Phil Bryant, University of Mississippi Chancellor Dan Jones and others broke ground Monday on a new $63 million building on the Jackson campus that would allow the school to add another 30 to 40 students per class. The school already raised its class size from 100 a year to the current 135 over a period of years ending in 2010. <\/p>\n
\"We just simply don't have enough doctors and so people are dying,\" Bryant said. \"We're going to say to Mississippians: 'Help will be on the way, more doctors will be coming soon.'\" <\/p>\n
Bryant said the state should look to health care not only as an aid to people but as a way to improve the economy. <\/p>\n
\"If you look at the future of health care in Mississippi as an economic driver, it has to start with more physicians,\" he said. <\/p>\n
The governor steered $10 million in federal grant money to help get construction started. But the governor and university leaders are looking to the Legislature to authorize state borrowing to pay for rest. <\/p>\n
Bryant said his goal is for lawmakers to borrow $25 million this year and $25 million in 2014 to pay for the five-story, 151,000-square-foot building. <\/p>\n
\"The Legislature is going to have to step up,\" Bryant said. <\/p>\n
Jones said he's not worried that the Legislature could fail to act and money run out once construction begins. <\/p>\n
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\nOle Miss breaks ground on medical school building<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"