Health Secretary John Reid has announced that funding to establish and run the new Genetics Education and Development Centre has been awarded to the Birmingham Women's Healthcare Trust (see press release). The new centre is to be formed as part of the commitment to developing knowledge and skills in genetics within the NHS set out in the 2003 White Paper Our Inheritance, Our Future: realising the potential of genetics in the NHS, which allocated funds of £50 million to help ensure that the NHS will be able to effectively harness advances in genetics for the benefit of patients. Announcing Birmingham’s winning bid, John Reid said: "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 Genetics Education and Development Centre, which will receive funding of £600,000 a year for the next three years, will work with training providers, professional and academic bodies to educate NHS staff in genetics and the role of genetics in healthcare. Key objectives are to identify core skills in genetics for different groups of staff (particularly GPs), produce materials and courses to enable staff to access genetics education and training and toprovide support for the service development initiatives, announced at the same time, and aimed at bringing the benefits of genetics into mainstream medicine. The centre is to be led by Professor Peter Farndon and will be affiliated to the NHS corporate university (NHSU), which aims to improve health and social care by providing learning opportunities for NHS staff.
The Public Health Genetics Unit (PHGU) provided input to Birmingham’s winning bid, and will be associated with the new centre. Hilary Burton, PHGU Consultant in Public Health Medicine and author of the 2003 report Addressing genetics, delivering health: A framework for developing competency in genetics for health professionals in the UK will act as consultant for the centre; Hilary is secretary of the UK Strategic Steering Group for Genetics Education for Health Professionals, chaired by Professor Sian Griffiths, the President of the Faculty of Public Health.