Yesterday the Minister of State for Health, Andrew Stephenson MP visited Worcester to view the state of the art facilities at the Three Counties Medical School. Worcester MP Robin Walker introduced his colleagues to trainee doctors and paramedics who are training in the city to become the next generation of healthcare professionals.
Following the announcement at the Conservative Party Conference of new funded places for the medical school, which will allow more local students to study to read medicine, the Minister visited on the day that it was confirmed that the target of recruiting 50,000 more nurses, set in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, had been met.
The University of Worcester has been one of the fastest growing Universities in healthcare over a number of years and recruited record numbers of nurses and midwives in recent years. Robin has long campaigned for doctors to be added to the list and the medical school opened its doors to the first intake of students who are training to become doctors earlier this year. He then campaigned for more UK Government funded places, a decision which was confirmed shortly afterwards by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in an update to the NHS workforce plan.
The Minister met with trainee doctors in both primary and secondary care and heard from GPs, ED specialists and others who were helping to train them. He saw students using the state of the art technology and facilities in the anatomy suite and then went on to meet trainee paramedics in the training centre opposite. By coincidence Andrew Stephenson works part time as a volunteer paramedic in Lancashire and so he was able to swap stories with the trainee paramedics and the experienced ambulance staff training them.
Robin has consistently campaigned for more staff in the local NHS and recently helped to secure funding for the expansion of the Worcestershire Royal Hospital’s Emergency Department. He has already welcomed figures that show record numbers of staff working in Worcestershire trusts and joined calls for more local recruitment. On Friday he was able to celebrate the success of the Three Counties Medical school and showcase this key local asset to the Minister for Health. Robin was also able to introduce Andrew Stephenson to Marc Bayliss, the Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Worcester, to ensure that he can continue this work if elected.
Speaking after the visit, Robin Walker said
“It was wonderful to get the call from Andrew to hear that he was coming to Worcester to celebrate the success of our national target for recruiting more nurses. I was delighted to be able to show him the world class medical school which has been delivered and funded under this Government and to make the case for even more doctors to be trained locally. It was very exciting to see the school in use and to meet some of the aspiring doctors and paramedics who will be joining our NHS in the future.”
“Investing in the workforce of frontline NHS workers has been a priority throughout the last thirteen years and I am glad that the NHS Long-term Workforce Plan will deliver a pipeline of growth in placements for doctors and nurses over the next decade. I am even more delighted having campaigned so hard for it, that Ministers have listened and provided more funded places so that more local students have the ability to train in Worcester. It was so exciting to be able to showcase these positive developments with Andrew’s visit.”