Topeka ? Kansas University School of Medicine’s Wichita campus – an essential component to producing doctors in Kansas – is facing a funding crisis that could threaten its accreditation and the health care of many Kansans, officials said Monday.

Without accreditation, several residency programs at the Wichita Center for Graduate Medical Education (WCGME) would have to shut down, according to Barbara Atkinson, chief of the KU Medical Center and KU School of Medicine.

“These resident physicians are the backbone of care for many Kansans, especially those who are uninsured,” Atkinson told members of the state House Appropriations Committee.

She said WCGME faces a shortfall of $9.6 million this year, approximately 20 percent of its budget. The shortfall could increase to $12.5 million next year.

Committee members said the problem needs to be tackled by the Legislature and Kansas Board of Regents.

“We need to make sure everybody is engaged,” said state Rep. Bob Bethell, R-Alden. Bethell said WCGME is crucial to training doctors who eventually practice in rural areas of the state.

The Wichita campus educates 55 students in each of the third and fourth year of KU School of Medicine classes. The campus partners with Via Christi Regional Medical Center and Wesley Medical Center, both in Wichita. Nearly 70 percent of Kansas counties depend on physicians who completed their residencies through WCGME, Atkinson said.

The problem facing WCGME is two-fold.

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education has implemented new standards that require WCGME to have scholarly and clinical research. This means that many faculty members in WCGME programs, who currently are in private practice and volunteer to supervise residents, will need to be paid for time dedicated to research and scholarly activity, Atkinson said.

In addition, while the two Wichita hospitals have helped cover shortfalls in the past, they can’t anymore because their federal reimbursements to help offset the cost of graduate medical education are falling short. And their financial viability is being undercut by specialty hospitals siphoning away paying patients.

Several Wichita legislators have indicated that perhaps some of WCGME’s budget problem could be solved by shifting appropriations from KUMC in Kansas City, Kan.

But Atkinson said that would simply produce problems at KUMC.

“For example, shifting $8 million or $9 million from our budget in Kansas City would be the equivalent of defunding the entire budget for our School of Nursing or School of Allied Health,” she said. “It’s simply not a workable solution.”