Oshawa’s doctor training program has reached a new milestone as Queen’s University and Lakeridge Health welcome a fourth cohort of medical students to Durham Region.
The Oshawa doctor training program is welcoming 20 incoming students during orientation this week. Their arrival means learners are now represented in all four years of the undergraduate Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program for the first time since the program launched in 2023.
The inaugural cohort is beginning its fourth and final undergraduate year and is expected to graduate with medical degrees in May 2027 before moving into postgraduate family medicine training.
Program built around family medicine
The Queen’s-Lakeridge Health MD Family Medicine Program was created to address the shortage of family doctors by putting primary care at the centre of medical education from the beginning.
Queen’s and Lakeridge Health describe the model as a first in Canada. The MD portion runs for four years, with students receiving early and continuing clinical exposure in family medicine practices, hospitals and community settings across Durham Region.
Queen’s says the broader pathway is designed as a continuous six-year route that moves successful graduates from the four-year MD curriculum into family medicine residency training.
Students are based at the Queen’s satellite campus at Lakeridge Health in Oshawa, but their learning extends across Durham communities.
Twenty students join fourth cohort
Lakeridge Health said 20 new students are taking part in orientation as the program enters its fourth year.
The milestone gives the program a full complement of undergraduate cohorts, from first-year students beginning their medical education to members of the inaugural class preparing for graduation.
Lakeridge Health said the community-based approach is intended to give learners firsthand experience with Durham Region’s population and health-care needs while strengthening skills in comprehensive family medicine.
Students begin clinical learning early and work alongside family doctors and other health professionals throughout their education.
Clinical teaching opportunities continue to grow
The learning environment supporting the Oshawa doctor training program has expanded alongside the number of students.
Lakeridge Health launched a community hospital-based Clinical Teaching Unit in September 2025. The unit is co-taught by family physicians and internists and gives medical learners another setting for clinical rotations and team-based patient care.
Lakeridge Health also says it is the most active training site for Queen’s University specialist physician residents outside Kingston and hosts learners from the University of Toronto and other medical schools.
The organization sees those partnerships as part of a broader effort to strengthen both primary care and specialty services in Durham Region.
Permanent Oshawa medical campus also being pursued
The fourth-cohort milestone comes as Oshawa continues advocating for a permanent family physician medical campus.
At the 2026 Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, Mayor Dan Carter joined representatives from Queen’s University and Lakeridge Health in a meeting with Ontario Deputy Health Minister Deborah Richardson.
The group asked the province to support a permanent Queen’s-Lakeridge Health Family Medicine MD and postgraduate campus in downtown Oshawa within a former health-care hub.
The City says a permanent campus could help attract, train and retain physicians and other health-care professionals while supporting access to primary care.
That proposal is separate from the current medical program, which is already operating through Lakeridge Health.
For now, the newest 20 students bring the Oshawa doctor training program to an important milestone: four undergraduate cohorts learning at the same time, with the first class on track to complete its MD studies in May 2027.
