EXCITING times lie ahead at the Alexandra Hospital with the forthcoming creation of a new education unit.

The unit will replace the postgraduate medical centre with a modern, spacious, multi-disciplinary education centre.

Representatives from Worcestershire Mental Health Partnership and Redditch and Bromsgrove Primary Care Trust have been consulted in the design of the centre and both showed great interest in SimMan - a simulation training aid - which the League will be spending £24,000 on.

The mental health partnership said it is interested in using SimMan to teach resuscitation and the PCT are interested in teaching nurses how to develop IV transfusion and chemotherapy to patients in their homes.

The lecture theatre in the planned education centre will hold an audience of 120 but can be adapted to provide three rooms of 40 or two rooms with an 80/40 split.

A clinical skills room has been included in the design.

This is a realistic ward set-up that can be used to teach teams how to work with a patient, teach staff how to implement manual handling guidelines while negotiating the natural obstacles of a ward.

It will also help in assessing practical skills and allow domestic staff to receive their training in a realistic environment without using a live ward which can potentially affect patients adversely.

The education unit will be located on the first floor, adjacent to Ward 11 above the new orthopaedic clinic currently under construction. The unit is expected to be completed in summer 2006.