THE shadow health secretary has said he was “blown away” by the quality of facilities at a university aiming to train the next generation of medics.

Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting was in Sunderland for a tour of the university’s new £4m anatomy centre, which opened this month, as well a specially designed maternity and post-natal suites, which allow medical students to train in as realistic an environment as possible.

Mr Streeting was joined on the visit by Houghton and Sunderland South MP Bridget Philipson, who is Shadow Secretary of State for Education, and Sunderland Central MP Julie Elliott.

During the visit, he met nursing student Stacey Stamp, 37, a mum-of-two from Sunderland who is retraining after 12 years in the Navy. 

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He said: “I have been blown away by what we have seen at the university, they can be really proud of the medical school, what they are doing here I think is genuinely pioneering in terms of the immersive experience that they give to aspiring doctors and nurses, not just the knowledge and the skills but the experience that they will leave the university with.

The Northern Echo:

“I think the university have established a new benchmark for medical education which is one of the reasons I have been keen to visit.”

The school of medicine opened in 2019 with the aim of helping retain North East trained doctors in the region.

Almost all of the nursing graduates end up working in the region.

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