Health Sciences opens new lab

There is a growing need for clinical skills training for students in the Faculty of Health Sciences, UCT Vice-Chancellor, Dr Max Price, has said.

Speaking at the launch of the Clinical Skills Laboratory at Groote Schuur Hospital on 5 June, Price noted that this was particularly the case in the pre-clinical years, where access to patients is limited.

"We need skills laboratories and should have been doing this a long time ago," Price, himself a medical graduate, explained.

UCT alumnus and Groote Schuur Hospital's chief executive officer, Dr Saadiq Kariem, said when UCT approached him to convert the space that now hosts the facility into a clinical skills lab, he found it difficult to imagine as it had not been used for a long time. However, he was delighted that "such an appropriate and important use" could find home in the institution's Old Main Building.

For the faculty, the event marked an important milestone in the ongoing development of the undergraduate curriculum, and lays the foundation for the implementation of similar facilities.

At the event, Price surprised many when he picked up a saxophone and joined the band that was providing entertainment, showing that he was also an accomplished saxophonist.