A new medical school is expected to be built in Stockton as the University of the Pacific is seeking funding. Monday evening brought one of the first steps towards breaking ground.

The theme from Monday’s Stockton City Council special meeting was that a new medical school would be a “win-win” for the University of the Pacific, Stockton, San Joaquin County, and the Central Valley.

University of the Pacific President Christopher Callahan told CBS News Sacramento they’ve been working for a year on starting a school of medicine. On Thursday, he contacted City Manager Johnny Ford. Three hours later, this meeting on Monday was scheduled.

“We found out very much at the last minute that through some procedural things in Washington that any kind of federal funding needed to go through the city, and the city needed to be part of this,” Callahan said.

Callahan said there is a “great need” for a medical school in Stockton because of physician shortages. Callahan said in front of the council that through their research, they found every county in the Central Valley is below the bare minimum of physicians per capita.

Callahan would attribute that to no M.D.-granting medical schools in the region.

“There’s so much richness and depth, culturally and geographically and historically. It’s such a beautiful part of our country, and it’s so underserved by health care,” Callahan said.

That’s where the University of the Pacific medical school would fill that gap, and they needed the city council to approve a $7 million federal funding application on their behalf.

Callahan said that research shows physicians tend to practice after they graduate medical school in the general region of where they studied and went to medical school.

“We don’t have a medical school,” Callahan said. “If we have one, I’m absolutely convinced that young, and especially first-generation college students will come, hopefully to University of the Pacific as pre-med, but then to our school of medicine to learn during those first two years in the classrooms, in the labs, and then go out locally into clinical rotations in the local hospitals, especially St. Joseph’s Medical Center, which is a huge part of our community.”

There is also excitement about the potential ripple effect and economic boost this would provide to Stockton.

“It would be a game-changer for this city because we have people that don’t have access to health care, and if we had that here, they could offer clinics, and then they could do their residency here. They could just go right over to St. Joseph’s Hospital, they could do their residency, then they could live here, buy a home here…contribute to some of the wonderful things that we have in the city of Stockton,” Mayor Christina Fugazi said. 

According to Fugazi’s office, the grant would play a part in the total $150 million cost, with the university committing $50 million of that. They’ve gotten $20 million from private donors and are expecting the rest through philanthropic and corporate partnerships. 

Callahan said that the equipment needed for a 21st-century medical school is “significant” and “complex.” He added that Congressman Josh Harder has been working on this to help fund the equipment and that Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom has an appropriation to help fund the school.

The city council voted unanimously to pass this.

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