Inside Bolton’s new £40m College of Medical Sciences

Bolton College of Medical Sciences is expected to welcome its first cohort of students in September 2024. Being built on the grounds of the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust’s site, the project will radically reinvent how nurses and other clinical care professionals are trained in the UK.

BCMS is a unique and collaborative partnership between the University of Bolton, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, Bolton College and Bolton Council. 

Once complete, the £40m facility will deliver training to approximately 3000 learners per year, and will be capable of teaching up to 950 students at any one time. 

In addition to training aspiring clinical care professionals from aged 16+, education provision also extends to existing NHS staff who will be able to undertake CPD training on site. A number of dedicated classrooms in BCMS have been developed exclusively for this purpose.  

The building will be home to six simulation suites, with each able to accommodate 30 students at once. These simulation suites will replicate different types of hospital ward with industry-grade equipment, creating a highly accurate hospital setting in a simulated and controlled environment. 

A state-of-the-art 4D room will take this immersive and interactive learning experience further, using projectors, sounds, lighting and smells to generate realistic scenarios – such as a road traffic accident – in a controlled manner.

Two “high-fidelity” suites have been specifically designed for conducting controlled assessments of clinical practice. These suites will feature advanced adult and infant mannequins that accurately replicate human physiology and which can be programmed to create life-like medical scenarios, enabling students to be observed and assessed in their delivery of clinical care.

One of these suites has also been designed to easily transform into an operating theatre – catering for BCMS’ wide range of end users. 

In addition to these high-fidelity suites, there will also be a community simulation suite. This room will create a home-like environment, simulating the types of issues that clinicians deal with when providing care in a non-hospital setting. 

The BCMS design team has worked extensively alongside senior clinicians at Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, ensuring the layout and equipment create an accurate and highly tuned environment that will prepare future clinicians for the scenarios they will face.

Professor George Holmes DL, President and Vice Chancellor of the University of Bolton adds:

“We want to attract the best talent from around the country to come and learn at BCMS, and by having such an incredible range of high-tech equipment, we’re firm in our commitment to becoming a national centre of excellence for healthcare education.”