The provision of a new €4 million medical education facility at Waterford Regional Hospital will help make the south east a more attractive area for medical consultants to live and work, a leading consultant claimed yesterday.
Consultant Haematologist and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland dean of undergraduate studies at the hospital, Dr Fred Jackson, said the development of the new facility reflects the strong commitment from staff and management at WRH to developing medical educational facilities in the south east.
The hospital's general manager, Patricia O'Sullivan, welcomed the laying of the foundation stone of the new facility yesterday and said it would help "attract and retain highly trained medical personnel for the WRH and the HSE's acute hospital network in the south east." The new facility is jointly-funded by the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and the Health Service Executive and will include a 194-seat lecture theatre, an administrative/seminar room and tutorial and reading rooms.
Since 1998, the RCSI has been sending students in their final two years to Waterford to attend clinical rotations in medicine, surgery, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, orthopaedics, ophthalmology and otolaryngology.
The laying of the foundation stone was carried out yesterday by Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Martin Cullen, who said it would be a hugely beneficial resource when completed in July 2008.