Link-up planned for Wolverhampton hospital and university

Seven professorships would be created as part of the partnership, across a range of medical and research topics within the university.

David Loughton, chief executive at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust which runs the hospital, said it would lead to a 'significant' amount of investment into the area.

He revealed the plan at a meeting of the hospital's trust board yesterday.

It would see doctors given the chance to access further eduction, as well as providing research opportunities.

Mr Loughton revealed he and several high-profile doctors from the hospital had met with representatives from the university last month.

It would be the second university to link up with the hospital.

Mr Loughton said: "We already have links with University of Birmingham, this is about establishing the same links with the University of Wolverhampton.

"It is an opportunity for the university more than it is for us, but we wanted to strengthen our links with the university.

"There will be seven professorships created and a significant amount of funding go into this."

Mr Loughton said it would take about a year before they could launch the course, and said it would help strengthen ties between the two parties.

He said the link would also help to cope with the ever-changing world of medicine as research progresses and develops constantly.

He added: "For people in the NHS, once they've qualified, it isn't over.

"Come five years down the line medicine will have changed almost completely, so it's important that we have links with the university."

University bosses today said the talks were in their earliest stages.

James Allen, spokesman for the University of Wolverhampton, said: "We have been working closely for a number of months now with the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust to explore the opportunities available around post graduate medical provision.

"We are looking at educational provision for doctors and also research opportunities."

Mr Loughton has already promised any nurses who qualify at the University of Wolverhampton that there will be a job for them.

Speaking at the meeting, chief nursing officer Cheryl Etches said: "As long as they qualify from the university, and they can pass our interview process, which includes numeracy and literacy tests, then they will have a job to come to."

It emerged earlier this week that the hospital trust was working with Wolverhampton University to provide intensive language classes for foreign nurses being employed at the hospital.

This includes lessons in Black Country dialect.