More doctors to study in Belfast

More students are training to be doctors at Queen's

The Medical School at Queen's University in Belfast is to expand, Northern Ireland's Health Minister Shaun Woodward has announced.

Mr Woodward said the government was giving £4.25m towards a £7.3m expansion of the school which will see refurbishment and a new building.

From September 2005, the number of student places for medicine at the university rose by 63 to 250.

"More doctors mean a better service for patients," Mr Woodward said.

"By increasing the capacity of the medical school at Queen's, we are able to increase substantially the number of students entering medical training, and this in turn will mean more doctors trained in Northern Ireland and hopefully choosing to make their careers here."

Milestone

Queen's Vice Chancellor, Professor Peter Gregson, said it was an "important milestone for Queen's and the National Health Service".

"Almost everyone in Northern Ireland will have been treated at some time in their lives by a doctor trained at Queen's," he said.

"The strength of Queen's is its ability to deliver a first-class medical education in an environment where, through world-class research, we are developing the technologies and treatments of tomorrow."

The university is contributing more than £3m to the capital costs of this expansion, which will see a new building on the Belfast City Hospital site and a refurbishment of the existing Medical Biology Centre building.