A new generation of locally grown GPs could be heading to clinics throughout the county as part of a collaboration between University of Cumbria and one of the world’s best medical schools.

University of Cumbria and Imperial College London are working together to launch a new graduate entry medical school in Carlisle, which it is hoped will begin to enrol its first entrants in autumn 2025.

The programme will build on training University of Cumbria already offers in areas such as nursing and midwifery and be based at the new Carlisle Citadels campus.

Deputy vice-chancellor Professor Brian Webster-Henderson, who is the university’s strategic lead on the initiative, says the plan was in development for about 18 months before it was taken to former health and social care secretary Sajid Javid for approval.

"Imperial approached us to consider whether we would be keen to work together in partnership on areas of health and social inequality," he says.

"Part of that, for us at the University of Cumbria, is about positioning ourselves as a key provider to the workforce. One of the areas that we weren't providing, but which is a huge challenge in Cumbria, is medical practitioners.

“So that seemed an obvious focus to start the conversations and see whether we could work together to do something that would be of benefit to the region.”

The school will teach a four-year graduate entry programme.

"It will be a shortened programme, but the students by nature are going to be more mature, have life experiences, and hopefully will be more likely to stay in the area that they've been educated in," says Brian.

"The skills that people need to come out with are good assessment and good decision making skills, particularly amongst the elderly and particularly amongst people where poverty and social deprivation may be an imposing factor on their health.

“We do need practitioners who are able to utilise not just a medical knowledge but are actually able to associate that to people within their own environment at pace because the recruitment issues are a challenge.”

The university is in the process of developing a curriculum which will deliver these goals in line with General Medical Council standards.

"What we want to do for students is give them an experience that will be relevant to Cumbria," says Brian.

"This means much more global health, population health, public health, community focus, rural health; elements that you might not tend to find in great depth within other medical schools.

“We want the practitioners to come out and be relevant to the communities where they are working. We really have heard loud and clear from the GPs that actually we need many more generalist skills within the curriculum that are going to be a benefit to the population we serve.”

Brian says the data shows that most medical students will head to London and the school is intended to try and break this cycle.

"Why not work with one of the world class leading experts in medical education, delivered in an area where there's a shortage, but actually no shortage of exposure to the experiences they'll need?” he says.

“There has to be a starting point. It might not solve every single problem, but it has to be a starting point for Cumbria to get people really motivated to stay and work in the area.”

Students are expected to come from all over the country, although some are likely to have studied at the University of Cumbria’s own Institute of Science and Environment or on its biomedical sciences degree course.

“What you'll find on programmes like that is that many people who didn't get into medicine in the first round do a really good biomedical sciences course and then go on to do a graduate entry medical degree,” says Brian.

The new programme will take 50 students a year, with 200 enrolled in total once it is fully up and running.

"We'll review it and grow it from there," says Brian.

"We want to start small to get the quality right, work with our practitioners and then grow it as it starts to establish itself.”

Some staff will be seconded from Imperial and the University of Cumbria will also appoint new staff, as well as using existing staff working in areas such as physiotherapy or radiography.

The university is already looking to appoint clinicians to help establish placements across Cumbria and Lancashire.

Meanwhile, the university is progressing plans to develop a new Learning Quarter in Barrow.

The plans are part of Brilliant Barrow, which is being funded by the Government’s Town Fund and will see more than 1,400 places created for students at a new campus on Barrow Island, along with a further 300 at an expanded and upgraded facility at Furness College’s Rating Lane site.

A planning application was submitted to Barrow Borough Council in spring 2022. Current timescales are for the work to be completed by the summer of 2024.

The university is developing a range of courses, from digital and cyber security to project management and supply chain and logistics.

Brian says the university is beginning the process of appointing staff to deliver teaching in areas it has not previously covered, such as manufacturing and cybersecurity.

The next stage will involve sign off of the building design before construction can begin.

"The really important bit is that all of these projects are growing the university's relevance to its communities,” says Brian.

*The University of Cumbria Project Academy held its first annual Project Management Summer School event recently.

The two-day ‘Learning and Project Management’ event was attended by 175 learners and employers including BAE Systems, Sellafield Ltd, Rolls-Royce, the BBC, Bentley Motors, Cumbria County Council, and the NHS.

Speakers from industry and experts of the field included Steven Livingstone, former Programme Director of the £2.5Bn Heathrow Terminal 2; Professor Andy Gale, field expert in Project Management Education; and Gordon MacKay, Capability Lead at Sellafield.