Plans Submitted for Lincoln’s New £21 Million Medical School Building

Detailed plans have been submitted for a state-of-the-art new medical school building at the University of Lincoln, UK, in another significant step forward for medical education in the region.

Documents and drawings which bring to life the vision for a purpose-built teaching facility for future generations of medical students have been submitted in a planning application to City of Lincoln Council.

If approved, the £21 million building would be created next to existing science laboratories, the Janet Lane-Claypon Building, and opposite the University’s iconic Isaac Newton Building on the southern edge of the main Brayford Pool Campus. The site already has outline planning permission under an existing masterplan with the first artist’s impressions of the planned building revealed last summer.

The five-storey building will comprise lecture theatres, laboratories, clinical and prosection anatomy suites equipped with cutting-edge diagnostic tools, and a dedicated science library. Facilities will include a clinical skills suite with mock consultation rooms (simulating hospital wards or a GP surgery) with the latest technologies to provide high quality teaching. These will enable medical students to explore the latest technology developments in healthcare.

Scheduled for completion in spring 2021, the building has been designed to meet the BREEAM Excellent environmental standard and features photovoltaic panels generating electricity for its laboratories, as part of the aspiration to be a carbon neutral scheme. This new facility will be the most sustainable on our campus.

University of Lincoln Vice Chancellor Professor Mary Stuart said: “This is an exciting step forward for everyone with an interest in this project to produce future generations of healthcare professionals. It represents more than just a building – it is a commitment to current and future communities in Lincolnshire to develop sustainable healthcare for the region.

“Soon we will be training our own doctors right here in the heart of Lincoln, creating more opportunities for local young people to aspire to a medical career, providing new routes for experienced clinicians to develop their teaching and research practice, and increasing the likelihood that newly-trained doctors will remain in the region once they qualify.”

The University of Lincoln and University of Nottingham confirmed in March 2018 they had been successful in their joint bid to establish a new medical school for Lincolnshire. It followed an announcement in 2017 by the Government of an additional 1,500 medical school training places across England to ease staffing shortages in the NHS.

As the second largest county in England, Lincolnshire has particular healthcare challenges with its rural geography and ageing population and has traditionally struggled to recruit and retain doctors and other healthcare professionals.

Lincoln Medical School will welcome its first 95 students in September 2019. Within a few years, the School will be delivering first class medical training to around 400 students.

Students will study for the University of Nottingham’s renowned BMBS medical degree at the University of Lincoln’s campus. The first undergraduates will initially be taught in Lincoln’s new £19 million Sarah Swift Building, equipped with specialist clinical skills suites, and other modern science facilities and laboratories on campus, including the £28 million Isaac Newton Building.

Prospective medical students can apply through UCAS for the five-year University of Nottingham BMBS medical degree (A10L) at Lincoln or the six-year degree with Foundation Year (A18L).

Local people and businesses can help create the cutting-edge Lincoln Medical School facility where tomorrow’s doctors will train by contributing to an ongoing fund-raising campaign for the new building.

For more information, see www.lincoln.ac.uk/home/medicalschool/