A marathon fundraising challenge has been set to fund the building of a new training centre at Noble’s Hospital.
The new clinical skills centre will cost £930,000 and will promote excellence in medical training at the hospital, allowing regular timetabled medical training and updating for all doctors using simulators and mannequins.
Just over half that amount – £470,000 – has already been pledged by the Isle of Man Medical Research Committee but the remainder needs to be found by the end of the year.
Dr Roy Clague, a trustee of the charitable fundraising trust, said the aim was to start work as soon as the hospital’s new neo-natal unit was finished at the end of the year, so they could use contractors already on site, thus reducing costs.
‘The main focus will be on junior trainee doctors,’ he said.
‘When the new Noble’s Hospitl was built, the current facillity (Keyll Darree) was adequate but since then medical training has increased. For example, we now use simulators and we have to be able to store them and bring them out so they are readily available, so we now need more space.’
In addition to this, he added, training in some areas such as nursing care and acute medical care had significantly increased so the demands on training facilities were accordingly greater.
The new building is to be two storeys and will house a training room next to another room with a one-way window which can be used to assess students’ performance on various tasks.
The similation mannequins which are now used can be programmed to produce symptoms of different problems from a heart attack to an asthma attack.
Dr Clague added: ‘At one time many procedures were practised by students under supervision on actual patients but now things like lumbar punctures and spinal taps are carried out on the mannequins and students practise them as much as necessary before moving on to a real patient.
‘It marks an improvement in patient safety but it puts more demand on the training facilities,’
There will also be another six rooms within the building where different scenarios can be created for students and a variety of different training undertaken. The existing Keyll Darree centre will also remain in use.
All significant contributions towards the fund will be recognised on a plaque inside the building with a very large donation acknowledged by the naming of one or more of the rooms or even the naming of the building after a major benefactor.
