The next generation of the healthcare workforce is set to benefit from the launch of a new medical school in Wales.
Hosted by Bangor University, the independent North Wales Medical School is set to welcome its first 80 students next year – hundreds more will follow throughout the facility’s first decade via five-year school and four-year graduate entry routes, ultimately bolstering NHS Wales’ workforce.
The project is a collaboration between the Welsh Government, Bangor University, Cardiff University and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
Students will use Bangor University’s Brigantia Building and Fron Heulog Medical and Healthcare simulation site – this will include the use of state-of-the-art electronic dissection tables to study anatomy.
“The North Wales Medical School represents a real step forward for the University, adding to our existing portfolio of education and research across healthcare disciplines.”
Professor Edmund Burke, who is vice chancellor at Bangor University, continued: “It emphasises our close relationship and support for health services across the region.
“Our new medical students will benefit from an extensive investment in modern training facilities, our experienced teaching staff and great support from health service staff across North Wales.”
On a visit to the new medical school facilities, Lesley Griffiths, the minister for North Wales, said: “The North Wales Medical School will train the expansion of medical staff required for the future, and it’s been great to see the facilities here today and to hear about the experiences of the students who are already studying at Bangor University.
“I hope the students who will pass through these doors and train in the region will also choose North Wales as their place of work once they have qualified.”
Griffiths also met students from the Cardiff C21 North Wales Medicine programme which is being carried out across Bangor University and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board facilities. The third year is carried out entirely in a North Wales general practice.
The programme’s first 17 students graduated earlier this summer after all passing their exams at the first time of asking – the Welsh Government puts the success of the project down to the close partnership and support of Cardiff University’s school of medicine.
Cardiff University’s head of medicine, Professor Stephen Riley, commented: “We have supported our partners at Bangor University to prove the concept of medical training being delivered in north Wales in its entirety.
“As preparations continue for the first intake of students, we will continue to advise and guide colleagues as the new medical school completes its journey to becoming an independent school.”
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