The foundation stone for a new €4.2 million medical education facility at Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH) was laid today by Minister Martin Cullen, Minister for Social and Family Affairs.

The new facility, which is being jointly funded by RCSI and the Health Services Executive (HSE), is designed to enhance the teaching of both undergraduate and postgraduate medical personnel in the south-east.

Due to be completed in July 2008, the new Academic Teaching Centre will provide state of the art facilities for RCSI undergraduate students attending their clinical rotations in Waterford. This will include a 194-seat lecture theatre, a large teaching/seminar room, tutorial and reading rooms for interactive teaching and other administrative and ancillary services. Since signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the Hospital in 1998, the College has been sending students in their final two years to WRH to attend clinical rotations in Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology.

The new facility will also be available as a teaching and learning resource for all health and allied health professionals within the HSE’s acute south east hospital network, which is in line with key objectives set in its Capital Plan. It will help facilitate the provision of training and development opportunities for members of multidisciplinary teams and professional staff.

Minister Martin Cullen said: “I am delighted to lay the foundation stone for this significant expansion project at Waterford Regional Hospital. By providing state-of-the-art teaching facilities, we are not only benefiting students – allowing them to further develop their clinical training and independent study - but also the staff at WRH and healthcare professionals throughout this entire region. This in turn will further enhance the delivery of healthcare services in the South East which will ultimately benefit local communities.”

Mr Richard Dooley, South East Hospital Network Manager with the Health Service Executive, said: “Medical education is a process of lifelong learning that puts patients first, delivers the outcomes of the Health Service’s Transformation Programme and enables professionals to expand and fulfil their potential. The HSE is pleased to be financing close to 50% of this project in a partnership arrangement with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. Turning the sod paves the way for a facility that will reflect what the public expect, and rightly so, that they receive care from practitioners who are up-to-date in their knowledge, thinking and skills.”

Mr Michael Horgan, CEO of RCSI, said: “As Ireland’s largest provider of medical and health sciences education, RCSI is committed to developing and improving the way in which medical education is delivered. This new centre will further strengthen the educational links and co-operation that exist between RCSI and the HSE and also between RCSI and WRH, which has established itself as one of our major teaching hospitals.”

Ms Patricia Sullivan, General Manager of Waterford Regional Hospital, said: “Having such a feature on the hospital campus has the potential to attract and retain highly trained medical personnel for WRH and the HSE’s acute hospital network in the south-east.”

Dr Fred Jackson, Consultant Haematologist and RCSI Dean of Undergraduate Studies at WRH, said: “There is a strong commitment from staff and management at WRH with regards to developing further educational facilities in the south-east. This new facility will make the Waterford and south-east region attractive to medical consultants.”