Rebecca Harris has welcomed the Government’s announcement today, that the Anglia Ruskin School of Medicine can start educating the next generation of doctors from this September. Anglia Ruskin University is the first to host a medical school in Essex. With four other new medical schools announced today, this is the first time that new schools have been established in more than a decade.

 

Rebecca Harris said:

 

“I supported Anglia Ruskin last year when they were bidding for Government funded medical student places and I am very pleased to see that 100 places have been allocated to Anglia Ruskin University. This is exciting news and it shows the Government’s commitment to ensuring the NHS has the doctors it needs. We will hopefully see a significant number of students from the local area applying and becoming local Doctors.“

 

Essex has a health system which has one of the highest patient to GP ratios in the country.  By training talented and motivated students here, rather than see them leave to carry out their undergraduate education elsewhere, Anglia Ruskin School of Medicine can help address this urgent need.

 

The £20 million building on Anglia Ruskin’s Chelmsford campus will feature state-of-the-art skills facilities, specialist teaching space, a lecture theatre and an anatomy suite. Anglia Ruskin are collaborating with five NHS hospitals, a large mental health trust and more than 60 GP surgeries to provide students with a mix of experiences in urban and rural environments. Students will be taught by visiting clinicians from NHS Trusts and general practice as well as University staff.

 

Iain Martin, Vice Chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University said:

 

“This is a hugely significant step for our university and is tremendous news for the region.  As of today we are able to tell students wishing to study Medicine at Anglia Ruskin University that they can apply via our website!”

 

Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt said:

"Setting up five new medical schools is part of the biggest ever expansion of our medical and nursing workforce; which will help us deal with the challenges of having around one million more over 75s in ten years' time. These schools are being set up in parts of the country where it is can be hard to recruit and attract new doctors - but will benefit doctors everywhere as we start to eliminate the rota gaps that add so much pressure to their work."

 

All the schools will be outside London in areas which traditionally struggle to attract doctors. By 2020 it's hoped the five new schools will have 1,500 student doctors in training.