STUDENTS at the landmark University of Worcester’s Three Counties Medical School will begin their training in September after a £1million grant was matched and more with NHS grants.
A total of 20 students will have their education costs met for the four years it will take to get their medical degrees.
The rapid rise of the much-needed base has been boosted with a £1million grant from the Kildare Trust, a local charity, which been matched and more by £1.7m in grants from the NHS in Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
It’s a cash injection welcomed by the university which has already committed nearly £20million for buildings, equipment, staff and curriculum to create the new medical school.
It costs a minimum of £40,000 each year to educate a postgraduate medical student – £160,000 in total using the nationally agreed NHS rates.
Half this total is devoted to the costs of on-the-job training in hospital wards, GP surgeries and health settings while the other half pays for the education at medical schools across the country. Students also need grants and loans for maintenance whilst they are studying full time.
Applications for the 20 UK places on the University’s four-year graduate entry Medicine MBChB (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) will now open shortly.
In addition, the University will select a small number of fee-paying international students to ensure that the minimum initial cohort size of 24 is reached.
Simon Trickett, chief executive of NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “The pandemic has highlighted what the NHS and our partners can achieve when we all work together. We want to continue to build on these successful partnerships to deliver the best possible care across our system.”
Professor David Green CBE DL, vice chancellor and chief executive of the University, said: “The new medical school will help to address the pressing need for more doctors in this beautiful, but under-resourced part of Britain, where health inequality has been further intensified by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We are very grateful to our NHS partners and the Kildare Trust for providing this vital grant funding to allow UK students to be educated here in the Three Counties.
“Being a University Hospital educating medical students improves the attractiveness to the skilled medical professionals who are in such short supply nationally and internationally.”
Ian Smith, chair of The Kildare Trust, added: “The trustees are delighted to have been able to provide this grant along with a substantial sum as a permanent endowment for the Three Counties Medical Centre.”
