MEDICAL staff who care for terminally ill children will benefit from additional training thanks to a new project from the University of Worcester and Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

The £140,000 scheme is being funded by a grant from the Department of Health and will involve taking a mobile skills unit out to hospitals in order to train staff on site.

The University of Worcester’s mobile unit will be transformed into a specialist laboratory with a variety of up-to-date clinical equipment, including remote-controlled child and baby manikins to simulate scenarios faced by staff.

Dr Sonya Wallbank, University of Worcester senior researcher who is leading the project, said: “The aim is to train health professionals across the West Midlands with the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to deliver quality paediatric and end of life care by taking the classroom to the staff.

“The mobile unit will give staff a safe learning environment to develop their skills, knowledge and confidence, which in turn will improve patient care and safety.”

The mobile unit will mean medical staff will not have to travel to attend training sessions and training can be delivered to whole teams without taking them off site.

Training will be delivered by paediatric specialists from the university with expertise from Birmingham Children’s Hospital and from Coventry University.

It is estimated that 37 NHS trusts and three hospices in the West Midlands could benefit from the project, which could then be rolled out nationwide.

The project will be piloted with Birmingham Children’s Hospital in March before being taken to other trusts.