PORTLAND – The University of New England is moving its medical school to a new building on its Portland campus. University officials cut the ribbon Tuesday on the 110,000-square-foot Harold and Bibby Alfond Center for Health Sciences.

“With the opening of this building, we position our medical students side by side with nursing students, physician assistant students, future physical and occupational therapists, pharmacy students, future dentists and many other health professional students here in Portland on this campus,” University President James Herbert said.

UNE's medical school dates to 1978 and had been located on UNE’s Biddeford campus.  

Jane Carreiro, now UNE’s Vice President of Health Affairs and dean of the medical school’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, said she remembered coming to the school as a student in 1984 when the medical school operated out of a white farmhouse.

“The facilities were pretty basic,” she said.

Currently, the medical school has about 165 students per class, Carreiro said, and she expects that number will go up to 200.

Carreiro said there is a shortage of medical professionals nationwide. In Maine, there is a shortage of 653 primary care physicians, but there are only about 70 medical students finishing residencies.

“We have such a shortage of physicians in northern New England, especially in rural and community-based settings,” she said.