Directors of North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust met at the Cumberland Infirmary in Carlisle last week, speaking with optimism about medical education programmes taking place in Cumbria.
Next generation medical practitioners are being educated at Pears Cumbria School of Medicine in Carlisle and Westlakes Campus School of Medicine and Dentistry at University of Central Lancashire.
The first intake of students at the Pears School of Medicine in Carlisle, as it opened its doors in August(Image: University of Cumbria)
The new school of medicine in Carlisle and the Westlakes UCLAN campus are set to boost the medical profession in a historically “under-doctored” county.
READ MORE: Westlakes Medical School tackling Cumbria “under-doctored”
Directors approved a proposal to form an Education and Research Sub-Committee which will “bridge the gap” between Cumbria’s medical schools and the hospital trust that their graduates may ultimately work for.
Executive Medical Director, Doctor Adrian Clements said: “I’m very supportive of it, I think it’s a new direction for the organisation, becoming a different healthcare organisation that’s integrated into the medical schools and the research hub.
Doctor Adrian Clements, Executive Medical Director at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust(Image: NCIC)
He said: “We need to move to that point, we need to get the board to be sighted on all those issues and supportive of those issues and it needs the weight of a board sub-committee to do that.”
Professor Jonathan Weber welcomed the move, both as a board member and a lecturer at University of Cumbria.
He said: “I think that your two major academic partners, which is Imperial College and University of Cumbria, should both be members of this committee.”
The meeting of directors at the Cumberland Infirmary boardroom in Carlisle(Image: Newsquest)
University of Cumbria’s new medical school was developed in-partnership with Imperial College London and is funded by the Pears Foundation.
Professor Weber said that the committee would be “about liaison as much as it is about strategy.
“Certainly in my experience in setting up these committees, they are invaluable in assisting both organisations to align their strategies, to mutual benefit.”
Professor Weber is also a Co-Director of the Research Hub based at the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine.
Mark Cullinan said: “Isn’t it an exciting time to be introducing a new committee to do this?
“And the impact that this can have, not only on our organisation but the population of Cumbria generally…I think it’s fantastic.”
The newly established committee will report directly to NCIC’s Board of Directors.