A full-size model of a human, which speaks, breathes and reacts like a real person, is being touted as the future of medical training.

Given drugs, fluids and anaesthetic, the mannequin gives the same response as a human would. Its pupils dilate, its eyelids rotate and it has a pulse.

A simulated operating theatre at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in London is the new home of the computer-driven model, one of the first two of its kind in the UK.

A highly trained instructor in an adjoining room controls the mock operation, and cameras film the whole scenario so the trainee doctors can analyse their own performance later.

The model, known as the Eagle Patient Simulator, was developed in the US and is mainly aimed at anaesthetists - 450 of them will be trained using it in the first year.

Competence

Professor Mervyn Maze said that tests on doctors' competence, such as the government's clinical governance system, will make simulators more important as they take away the dangers of trainees working with live patients.

He said there was a need to prove that simulators such as the model can produce better doctors and that hospitals had to work out how they can fund the schemes.

The mannequin costs £300,000 to set up and has a daily running cost of up to £2,000, met by North Thames Deanery Undergraduate Teaching Trust and commercial sponsorship.

Professor Maze said: "One of the biggest challenges to the simulator movement will be whether it is cost-effective.

"We are looking to have clear evidence that simulation training reduces human errors and increases clinicians' competency. That could support the claim that, in the long run, it can reduce health care costs."