A £3.2m training centre for student doctors is to be created - if councillors approve the plan.

In a partnership between the York Hospitals NHS Trust and the Hull York Medical School, trainees will work in mock wards and practice medical procedures on special mannequins.

The centre, at York Hospital, will house 64 students and 15 post-graduates.

Student doctors will be trained at the site for two 16-week periods throughout the year. They will stay in existing hospital accommodation at the Wigginton Road or Bootham Park sites in the city.

A planning application has been submitted to create the centre by building a flat-roofed, first-floor extension to the renal unit, kitchen and restaurant at the hospital.

The medical school's director of clinical studies, Dr Jonathan Thow, said: "It's a facility that will have a much bigger impact on local health centre standards than people might think.

"We are training our own doctors to a high level, and they will, hopefully, go on to work in the local community.

"Having this kind of facility also attracts people to work here."

The unit will also house a centre for the North Yorkshire Research and Development Alliance, which co-ordinates all medical research in the county.