A FRUITFUL partnership between a hospital and a university has put 2,000 new nurses and midwives on local wards.

A plaque was unveiled on Thursday at Worcester-shire Royal Hospital to celebrate successful links between the University of Worcester and Worcester-shire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust. Over the last 12 years, their strategic partnership has helped to train more than 2,000 nurses and midwives. The plaque was unveiled by the university's vice-chancellor, professor David Green and Michael O' Riordan, chairman of the hospital trust.

This year, the university has been awarded more than 279 nursing and midwifery places by the strategic health authority.

Nearly 212 of these have been created with the Worcestershire Acute Hos-pitals NHS Trust, which runs the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worc-ester, Kidderminster Hos-pital and the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.

Trust chairman Michael O'Riordan believes the partnership plays a vital role in the promotion of the Worcestershire health ec-onomy and will continue to help develop an NHS workforce for the future.

He said: "This partnership ensures that we have high quality patient-led care which is capable of working with new technologies coming into place. Our partnership will continue to develop a range of new skills with the university including information technology, which will be needed in new nursing areas including specialist GP practices."

University of Worcester vice chancellor Professor David Green said he was looking forward to continuing working closely with the NHS trust.

He added: "We're delighted that this plaque unveiling will highlight a successful partnership."