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Pima County's $174 million plan to create medical-training facilities on the 70-acre campus at University Physicians Healthcare Hospital at Kino is visionary. We hope the bond committee recommends putting the measure on the ballot as early as possible — and that voters approve it — so that work can begin quickly.

It's no secret that Tucson has a shortage of doctors and other health-care providers. Tucson also struggles to attract and retain higher-paying jobs. This project will address both of those problems — and may well solve the region's growing health-care needs over the next several decades.

All the necessary players have signed on to County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry's proposal: the University of Arizona and its College of Medicine, University Physicians and Pima Community College.

The expansion at Kino would include a new Pima Community College health-care campus to train dental hygienists; nurses and nursing assistants; X-ray and lab workers; and others.

That $45 million campus, a $15 million expansion and remodel of the existing UPH hospital and $45 million for an expanded primary and specialty-care facility where medical students, nursing students and others will receive clinical training, and $69 million to build a new county nursing home make up the bond package.

Already in the works and soon to break ground: An $18 million psychiatric urgent care center on the Kino campus that voters approved in 2006. It's scheduled to open in 2010.

The $174 million Kino package was presented to the bond committee about a week ago, according to Huckelberry. The committee is working on narrowing about $1.3 billion in requests down to about $800 million in general obligation bonds, he says. Then it will recommend a date for a vote, perhaps as soon as November.

Data gathered by Huckelberry's office show the Tucson area is below national averages in numbers of doctors of many sorts, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, lab technicians, emergency medical technicians, physical therapists, home health aides, podiatrists — the list is long and daunting.

On top of that, the region has insufficient faculty and locations to offer training and hands-on clinical experience. UA President Robert Shelton said Friday the expansion at Kino will "certainly" help the College of Medicine "grow its faculty, its residencies and its students."

The expansion at Kino would allow University Physicians to add 50 more teaching physicians and to graduate 118 new doctors a year through expanded residency programs.

Keith Joiner, dean of the UA College of Medicine, said when the proposal was first announced that it would help ease the shortage in emergency medicine and specialty care because residents often stay in the community where they train.

Shelton also noted that "the entire Tucson area is very short on beds and that quadrant of town in particular is in great need of a health campus."

Lou Albert, PCC West president, said when the proposal was first unveiled that while Pima had solved a shortage of nursing faculty, its program is limited by space. The proposed new campus would allow an increase of 25 percent in the number of nursing students trained, he said.

All of this is good news. The health-care-provider crisis isn't going to just go away. In fact it's likely to become more critical in coming years — unless we address it.

The number of people 65 and over in Tucson is expected to increase from just under 13 percent to 21 percent of the population by 2013, Huckelberry says. That demographic will drive a growing need for certain health-care providers: jobs for registered nurses will increase 56 percent; for nursing aides, 48 percent; for home health aides, 52 percent; for medical records technicians, 68 percent, and so on. The list is long.

The sooner we can get going on this 70-acre centralized, expanded clinical training facility the better. The better for Tucson's economy. The better for our citizens' health.