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Education Centre renaming honours Robert Drummond
A generous legacy given to the West Suffolk Hospital more than 70 years ago was remembered last week at a renaming ceremony at the Hospital’s education centre.
In 1950 Robert Drummond, a local farmer from Coney Weston, left £11,000, a sizeable amount of money at that time, to West Suffolk Hospital. This generous bequest was used to build a social and sports centre named Drummond Hall on the old Hospital Road site in 1956, for staff to use and enjoy. When the new hospital in Hardwick Lane was opened in 1973, the Drummond name came with it with the development of a new Drummond Sports and Social Centre on the site.
Always committed to development and learning, the West Suffolk Hospital started the process of becoming a specialist training centre for doctors from the University of Cambridge, developing its now flourishing Cambridge Graduate Course. Education facilities were needed to train the budding health professionals, so a fully-functioning Education Centre for staff of all disciplines was built on the social centre’s foundations in 2001 – but in this process the Drummond name was lost.
Stephen Dunn, chief executive of West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We thought it would be highly appropriate to restore the Drummond name and heritage to our site, and rename our well-loved and well-used education building the Drummond Education Centre. It celebrates the original benefactor and acknowledges his generous act of philanthropy. Good staff health and wellbeing is really important to us at West Suffolk and is one of our key principles, so it was quite visionary of Mr Drummond to acknowledge that so many years ago.”
The Trust offers resources for learning in the newly-renamed Drummond Education Centre, to ensure clinical training is available to upskill, train and give staff access to up-to-date research. Staff can put their new skills into action in the Siklos Centre for Clinical Skills and Simulation, where responsive dummies allow for real-life scenario training and practice.
Ian Drummond, great nephew of Robert Drummond, was one of the many Drummond family members who attended the official renaming last Friday (7 September). He said: “My Great Uncle Bob was really a civic-minded man, and was a member of district councils and the West Suffolk County Council, as it was then. He left his money for the good of West Suffolk Hospital and its staff, which we think is fantastic.
“We’re all really committed to the idea of developing future generations of skilled people to deliver better healthcare, so what could be better than having the Education Centre named after our family and what he did? We’re all immensely proud of this and delighted his legacy continues.”
Stephen added: “This year the Trust scored top in the East of England for doctors' overall training satisfaction in acute trusts, in the General Medical Council’s national training survey 2018, and it will be in no small part due to the building that now celebrates the Drummond family legacy.
“We are overwhelmed by the continuing generosity of local people to the hospital that serves them, and are proud to be west Suffolk.”
If you would like to consider leaving a legacy to West Suffolk Hospital, then please contact the hospital’s My WiSH Charity fundraising team on 01284 712952, email legacy@wsh.nhs.uk or write to My WiSH Charity, Hardwick Lane, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP33 2QZ.
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