Subject: DOH:GENETICS CENTRE - REID ANNOUNCES WINNING BID DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 2004/0162 4 May 2004 REID ANNOUNCES WINNING BID FOR £1.8 MILLION GENETICS EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE PLEASE NOTE EMBARGO Not for publication or broadcast before 0001 hours Tuesday 4 May 2004 Embargoed until 00:01 on Tuesday 4th May 2004 Birmingham Women's Healthcare Trust will run the new Genetics Education and Development Centre, Health Secretary, John Reid, announced today. The new centre - which will educate NHS staff about genetics and the role it plays in modern healthcare - is part of the Government's wider £50 million strategy to make sure that patients benefit from the latest developments in genetic knowledge. It has been set up in response to the increasing need for staff to understand how a patient's genetic make-up affects the likelihood of developing different diseases, and how they might respond to different medicines. The government will allocate £600,000 a year for an initial three year period. Health Secretary, John Reid said: "Birmingham should be proud that it will become the centre for genetics education for the whole NHS. The Birmingham Women's Healthcare Trust beat distinguished rivals to become the home of this new education centre. It is part of a £50 million pound governmet strategy to ensure NHS patients benefit fully from the latest developments in genetic knowledge. "Improving the understanding and knowledge of staff is key if NHS patients are to fully benefit from the genetics revolution. Clinical staff need to know how genetic technology can be used in diagnosis, prevention and treatment so that they can help patients make informed choices about whether to take a genetic test or which treatment to choose. This centre will mean that education in genetics will become an integral part of all professional training programmes, not only for undergraduates but also for existing staff". The centre will be affiliated to NHSU and work with professional and academic bodies as well as other training providers to: - identify the learning and skills gaps for different groups of staff, particularly GPs so that they are able to access genetics education and training when they need it; - identify core skills which all genetic training and education should cover; - produce materials to support learning; - run seminars and workshops; - help to raise the profile of genetics. Notes to Editors: 1. The centre will be staffed by a team of specialists from education and clinical practice led by Professor Peter Farndon, who is one of the leading figures in genetics in the UK and has particular expertise in education. 2. The June 2003 White Paper 'Our Inheritance, Our Future: Realising the potential of genetics in the NHS', sets out the Government's commitments to developing genetics knowledge, skills and capacity within the NHS by investing more than £50 million will harness the potential of advances in genetics for the benefit of NHS patients. 3. The NHSU, which became a Special Health Authority on December 1st 2003, is a new kind of educational organization, dedicated to health and social care. Its aim is to improve patient care by offering learning opportunities to staff at all levels who work for and with the NHS, in both health and social care. 4. Media enquiries only to Vicky Wyatt on 020 7210 5656. -------------------------------------------------------------------- GNNREF: 94211 Issued by : DOH Press Office Contact : If you have any queries relating to this press release, please forward this e-mail to the Press Office e-mail address provided above, or alternatively contact the originating Press Office by telephone. (Media queries only) Please DO NOT attempt to reply to the sender of this e-mail. The sender is involved solely as a broadcasting agent and cannot process e-mailed queries. Any attached files with a .DOC extension should be read using a word processor capable of reading Word 97 files. If you believe that the originating body is sending you Word 2000 files that you are not yet capable of reading, ask them to save future files in an earlier version.