College and hospital aim to boost medical education

A REVIEW team is to examine how best Waterford Institute of Technology and Waterford Regional Hospital (WRH) can work together to strengthen medical education.

Gordon Watson, a consultant surgeon at WRH and regional director of cancer services with the South Eastern Health Board, said the hospital could develop new undergraduate programmes for many disciplines, including obstetrics/gynaecology, ophthalmology and Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT).

A Fellow of the Royal College Surgeons of Ireland (RCSI), Mr Watson noted that WRH is already a RCSI teaching hospital with ambitions to expand its undergraduate training programme. With planning permission already in place at the WRH site in Ardkeen for additional teaching facilities and student residences, Mr Watson suggested that the hospital’s research links with the Institute could be developed further in a new direction.