N.Y.-Grenada med school deal blasted

NEW YORK, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- New York City medical schools say they're worried U.S. students will suffer because of deal signed between city-owned hospitals and a Caribbean school.

They say a 10-year, $100 million contract between New York's Health and Hospitals Corp. and a for-profit medical school based in Grenada could make valuable internships at the hospitals less available for more worthy local medical students, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

Critics of the deal, which include the New York University School of Medicine and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, say the city hospitals are conferring unwarranted prestige on a foreign school whose curriculum is more vocational than research-based, the newspaper said.

Local medical educators say Caribbean medical schools often cater to affluent students who can't get into schools in the United States. The New York City deal was brokered by a hospital board member who has long worked for the Grenada school, the Times said.