HOSPITAL staff can now train for almost any real-life circumstance thanks to a family of high-tech manikins costing £200,000.

Bishop Auckland Hospital, in County Durham, today (September 12) marked the official launch of its state-of-the-art clinical simulation centre complete with four life-sized dummies that breathe, talk, bleed, fit and cry.

The manikins - a man, woman, eight-year-old child, one-year-old child and new born baby - can be programmed to replicate a multitude of realistic scenarios such as strokes, heart attacks, road accident injuries and birthing complications.

Consultant anaesthetist Dr Derek Randles, the lead clinician at the simulation centre, said: “Times are changed and we no longer practice on patients anymore. We make sure our knowledge and skills are just right before the students go onto the wards. We can simulate virtually every scenario imaginable. Training can be life-saving.”

With a workforce already equipped with medical knowledge, the centre is designed to help staff work on what are described as the ‘human factors’, such as team work, leadership and communication.

The manikins are programmed and managed behind the scenes from a control room manned by sim technician Shea Graham.

In the newly opened department today the dummies were set up across the ward’s rooms to recreate a variety of scenarios.

In one room a woman had recently delivered a full-term baby but had suffered significant post-partum haemorrhages while another room was occupied by a 46-year-old who was severely burned from a house fire which had left him with a head injury.

Not only are the dummies set up to replicate the real-life situation, but so too are the machines that surround them.

They can also appear to talk in role plays through the use of microphones used by team-members.

Jill Foggins, communications officer for the hospital, said: “The purpose is to offer clinicians training in a completely safe environment. It’s not about testing it’s about learning, so people can go onto the wards confidently. There are three children because as children get older their reactions and physiology changes rapidly.

“They can look at some of the situations that arise in real life and real practice. The team can create scenarios and courses that focus on those real situations.”

The centre was opened by Professor Sir John Burn – lead clinician for the National Health Service North East.

There are an increasing number of simulation centres in the UK but only two or three in the region.