The Newcastle Surgical Training Centre - was the first centre in England to receive full accreditation from the Royal College of Surgeons.

The Centre in Newcastle has developed a national and international reputation, providing a specialist forum for endoscopic skills and is part of the drive to improve the delivery and safety of surgical care and development of new near-patient technology. This centre is one of the very first purpose built anatomical examination units of its kind in the UK to carry a formal licence from the Human Tissue Authority enabling some of its leading surgeons to deliver cadaveric training in a unique and extremely high specification "wet lab" environment. See www.nstcsurg.org. This is yet another demonstration of the Trust's excellence and expertise.

The College terms accreditation as the process by which it verifies the quality and standards of courses or events offered by educational organisations and it has developed guidance and standards to act as a benchmark for good quality programmes, courses or event design. Policies have been developed around six specific forms of accreditation in order to corroborate where programmes, courses, or events have complied with the College's criteria and standards.

One of the 6 forms of accreditation is Centre Accreditation - the review of Surgical Education Centres to ensure compliance with the College criteria and standards for surgical education provision as part of a collaborative educational partnership. There is a rigorous application process to be followed. The Newcastle Surgical Training Centre at Freeman Hospital strives to be a world class research-intensive training facility, to deliver teaching of the highest quality and to play a leading role in the economic, social and cultural development of the North East of England and be acknowledged as a centre of excellence. This accolade has been granted following in depth analysis of the NTSC's procedures.

Mr Getty said "On behalf of the President, Professor Norman Williams, I am delighted to be awarding this accreditation to the Newcastle Surgical Training Centre. The unit provides an excellent facility in which to train the surgeons of the future in a realistic simulated environment, which ensures both the highest standards of training as well as patient safety