Major Trauma Training Events to Enhance Emergency Care at Cork University Hospital
Cork doctors receive specialist major trauma training this week at CUH to enhance emergency care for seriously injured patients across the region.
Cork University Hospital will host two specialist training courses this week for doctors treating patients with the most serious life-threatening injuries, as part of the HSE South West's commitment to advancing trauma care.
Taking place on 2 and 3 October, the advanced training events will bring together consultant anaesthesiologists and surgeons for intensive, hands-on preparation in damage control resuscitation and emergency surgery techniques.
As Cork's designated Major Trauma Centre for the South Trauma Network under Ireland's National Trauma Strategy, CUH plays a critical role in treating the county's most seriously injured patients. The 2022 Major Trauma Audit recorded 3,323 major trauma cases across Ireland, highlighting the vital importance of specialist training for medical teams.
The Consultant Anaesthesiologists course offers advanced experience in damage control resuscitation and major trauma care, running alongside an Emergency and Resuscitative Surgery Skills Course. The coordinated approach ensures both surgeons and anaesthesiologists develop complementary skills for treating major trauma patients.
Dr Alan Horan, Consultant Anaesthesiologist at CUH, said:
"This course focuses on improving patient safety and survival in high-stakes trauma situations. Using cadaveric training, high-fidelity simulators, and cutting-edge surgical skills laboratories, participants will practise essential procedures such as advanced airway management, bleeding control, and vascular access. The course deliberately targets 12 consultants, ensuring maximum one-to-one teaching and feedback from a distinguished faculty of anaesthesiology and trauma experts from Ireland and the UK."
The Emergency and Resuscitative Surgery Skills course aims to equip surgeons with life-saving techniques through realistic simulations at UCC's ASSERT centre at the Brookfield Health Sciences Complex.
Professor Brian Manning, Vascular Surgeon at CUH, said:
"The Emergency and Resuscitative Surgery Skill Course is a unique training event aimed at teaching life-saving skills to surgeons who will find themselves providing care for the seriously injured. We aim to create highly realistic simulations of the initial emergency room management of seriously injured patients, reproducing the high-pressure decision-making scenarios that trauma doctors face in real life. Participants will also have an opportunity to perform commonly as well as less commonly performed emergency operations on cadavers, expertly guided by trauma specialists from Ireland and the UK. This gives surgeons the skills and confidence to perform life-saving operations, and to know which patients require which operations and when."
The ASSERT Centre at University College Cork is a leading facility for healthcare education, training and research through advanced simulation technologies. Its multidisciplinary team enables clinicians to develop and trial innovative healthcare solutions in simulated environments.
The training events are sponsored by HSE South West, UCC, RCSI and corporate partners.
