New £500,000 clinical skills unit for training medical students is opened at West Suffolk Hospital

Student doctors give a demonstration (Image: Archant)

The unit, which is attached to the hospital’s education centre at the rear of the Bury St Edmunds site, will help to make sure the next generation of doctors receive the best possible training.

On Friday, Dr Diana Wood, clinical dean to the University of Cambridge’s School of Clinical Medicine, unveiled a plaque there.

It has been named the ‘Siklos Centre for Clinical Skills and Simulation’ after consultant physician Dr Paul Siklos, who has been a driving force in medical student education for many years and still works at West Suffolk Hospital.

The unit, which is spacious and modern, can cater for up to 70 medical students at any one time and includes a practical lab for teaching skills such as taking blood samples, inserting catheters and drips and stitching wounds.

It is also home to the SimMan patient simulator, which was funded with a generous £27,000 donation from the Friends of West Suffolk Hospital and gives students hands-on experience of a variety of different critical illnesses and emergency situations.

Dr John Clark, consultant physician and lead for medical student training, said they were delighted Dr Wood had officially opened this “exciting” facility, which would help to ensure their medical students and future doctors received the best possible training.

He said: “The new building is double the size of our previous unit, enabling us to train more medical students and organise refresher courses for nursing staff and junior doctors.

“This is helping to make sure they keep up to date with the very latest in medical developments, in turn benefiting our patients.”

The unit has been jointly funded by the hospital and the Clinical School of Medicine at the University of Cambridge.