A West Cumberland Hospital physician has received prestigious accolades for his work

Dr Olu Orugun, who specialises in stroke and geriatric medicine and is based at the West Cumberland Hospital, has been made an honorary clinical professor within the School of Medicine at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).

He will be supporting teaching and research agenda as well as being heavily involved in the Trust’s ongoing partnership with UCLan following the creation of the West Cumberland Medical Education Centre (WCMEC) in Whitehaven.

Dr Orugun, North Cumbria University Hospital NHS Trust’s associate medical director and consultant physician, has also been invited to join a National Quality Improvement Initiative called ‘Q’ which is led by the Health Foundation and supported and co-funded by NHS Improvement.

The aim is to bring people together as an improvement community to share ideas, enhancing skills and collaborating to make health and care better. Dr Orugun will be joining 445 others skilled in improvement including those at the front line of health and social care, patient leaders, managers, commissioners, researchers, policymakers and others.

He said: “I’m thrilled at the honorary clinical professor appointment and also at the opportunity to join the innovative ‘Q’ initiative.

“I’d like to thank the Trust for their continued support and encouragement to my development.”

Stephen Eames, Trust chief executive, said: “This is brilliant news for Dr Orugun, who is a highly- respected member of staff and thoroughly deserves these aspirational achievements.

“We are absolutely committed to the continued support of staff professional development and I’d like to extend my congratulations to Olu.”

WCMEC aims to combine academic facilities at the campus with clinical facilities at the hospital. It welcomed the first students from UCLan in June 2016 with a number of courses and training opportunities set to begin over the coming year.

Professor Cathy Jackson, head of the Medical School at UCLan said: “Our vision is to enable an integrated health and care provision in rural, remote and dispersed communities.

“In essence we are helping to develop medical professionals that will have come from and live in the communities they serve.”

Recently, 15 paid work placements were created in Whitehaven to help deliver healthcare.