A new innovative education centre which will train Yorkshire’s future doctors, nurses and dentists has been officially opened at the Bradford Royal Infirmary by Professor Sir Christopher Edwards, Chairman of NHS Medical Education England.

 The Simulation Centre and Technical Skills Laboratory, which cost more than £730,000 to create, will complement the existing suite of training rooms and state-of-the-art Sovereign Lecture Theatre, helping to put the Foundation Trust at the cutting edge of professional healthcare.

 The Technical Skills Laboratory, which cost £485,000, provides high-tech facilities for the teaching of advanced surgical techniques across a range of medical specialties and the unit is dedicated to the advancement of medical training. The facility has already been used to host inter-collegiate ENT examinations and has received high praise from users.  A smaller seminar room equipped with six dental head simulators will train dentists and related-staff.

 The Simulation Centre, built at a cost of more than £245,000, consists of several simulated clinical environments including a four-bedded ward complete with hoist; a multi-purpose room which can replicate a patient’s home; a clinician’s consulting room; a discussion room, and a modern operating theatre plus resuscitation area where students and teachers can recreate real-life medical scenarios. Training performances in the theatre can be viewed from an adjacent seminar room via one-way viewing glass. 

All areas of the Simulation Centre are equipped with audio-visual digital recording equipment to allow various realistic training scenarios to be captured on Big Brother style cameras for feedback purposes which, along with new patient simulators (manikins), are controlled via the on-site control room.

 General Manager for Education, Maria Neary, said: “The centre also supports the Foundation Trust’s Patient Safety initiative by staging clinical scenarios involving multi-disciplinary teams so that skills can be practiced in a safe but realistic environment, all the time reducing the risk to patients.

 “Team-working and clinical skills can all be assessed within the safety of the centre and the potential for this facility continues to grow with fire safety, domestic and other forms of non-clinical training already being explored.”