Students at a new medical school are being encouraged to stay working in the area after their studies so patients are no longer sent “hundreds of miles away” because of a lack of staff.
Pears Cumbria School of Medicine (PCSM) welcomed its first cohort of 58 students earlier this week for a course that was designed to address a shortage of doctors in the county.
The school said the region’s doctor staffing levels were significantly below the national average despite Cumbria suffering from critical health inequalities.
Medical student Michael Archibald, from Newcastle, said: “One thing I can say for certain is I will definitely stay in the North.”
School head Prof Mary Morell said the establishment would train its doctors to give them an understanding of the “unique challenges” local communities faced.
Mr Archibald said: “Within Cumbria alone there’s a difference in life expectancy of nearly 10 years – that is ridiculous, quite frankly.
“This course actually has a real commitment to addressing that.”
PCSM is based at the former Fusehill Street campus in Carlisle.
It is a collaboration between the University of Cumbria and Imperial College London and was created following a £5m donation from the Pears Foundation.
Deputy vice chancellor at the University of Cumbria Prof Brian Webster Henderson said: “It’s vital for patients in the county that we have more healthcare professionals so we don’t have to send people hundreds of miles to access service because we’ve got no doctors to staff them.”
The course has a regional focus and a bespoke curriculum, focused on prevention and innovation, PCSM said.
Cumbria faces a number of problems including life expectancies varying greatly across the poorest and wealthiest wards in the county.
The school also said 68% of adults in the county are overweight or obese and hospital admissions linked to alcohol are higher than the national average.