New education centre and library for Wyong hospital

A  new integrated health Education Centre and Library was officially opened at Wyong Hospital on 5th October 2012 by Central Coast Local Health District Board chair Paul Tonkin . The S4.5 million medical training centre for doctors, nurses and allied health professionals raises the profile of Wyong Hospital as an important teaching facility for both undergraduates and postgraduates.

Central Coast Health, Newcastle University and New England University were responsible for funding and grants through the Australian Government's Innovative Clinical Teaching and Training grants program.  Teaching and Research Unit director Associate Professor Martin Veysey was instrumental in gaining the grants for the centre, which enables greater numbers of medical students from both universities to undergo clinical placement at Wyong through the Joint Medical Program.

The Education Centre comprises the Library, a 60-seat conference room, two seminar rooms (one of which can operate as a simulation room for hands-on clinical training), a tutorial room with video-conferencing facilities, and an information common which is available after-hours.

The Library is a marked improvement on the previous model which was housed in a small de-mountable. The new space more than doubles the area and brings the service inside the main hospital building. The University of Newcastle's Health Faculty Librarian Debbie Booth commented. "It's a huge contrast to the old de-mountable. What a wonderful area for staff and students. Congratulations to Martin Veysey, Suzanne and her team, for creating such an inviting space."

Central Coast Local Health District Library Manager Suzanne Lewis is also pleased with the new space: "Library staff did a wonderful job working in less-than-ideal circumstances in the old de-mountable, but this new facility really allows us to showcase our service. It's such a pleasant environment for the library staff to work in and for our patrons to study, read and meet, and is much more accessible from the clinical areas."

The comfortable, light and spacious new Library has already encouraged increased usage by hospital staff and students. There is ample space for continued growth of the book collection and more than twice the number of computers previously available. The Group Study room in the Library is equipped with a large LCD screen and video-conferencing capabilities.