Work has begun to create £2.1 million state-of-the-art facilities for Swansea University’s new pharmacy courses.
The University’s Medical School will welcome the first intake of students on its four-year MPharm programme in September. It will also be launching a pharmacy with a foundation year course.
The students will be able to benefit from a new 126 sq m pharmacy skills suite which will incorporate a workshop/seminar space and a simulated community pharmacy dispensary.
There will be four consultation rooms, two of which can be combined via a removable partition to create a simulated hospital room.
The state-of-the-art simulation centre management system CAE LearningSpace will enable students to develop their practice skills on campus and revisit learning from their own devices at home.
Head of Pharmacy Professor Andrew Morris said the developments would also house new videoconference-equipped student social learning space and meeting rooms, plus offices and social breakout space for academic and professional services staff.
He said: “This is a very exciting time for us at Swansea as we prepare to welcome our first pharmacy students.
“Our new facilities- together with the preparations we have been making over the past three years – mean we will be able to offer the very best training for the next generation of pharmacists.”
Elsewhere in the University’s Grove Building a laboratory is being repurposed for the analysis of, and investigations using schedule 1 controlled drugs.
Head of Swansea University Medical School Professor Keith Lloyd added: “We are now seeing pharmacists playing wider roles within primary, community and secondary care and their contribution to medicines management and patient care during the pandemic has been vital. Indeed, our own MPharm Programme Director, Dr Amira Guirguis, has demonstrated this first-hand by volunteering to administer vaccinations.
“Our new MPharm programme is going to be a key part of delivering first-class pharmaceutical care for people in Wales. We are very proud of the contribution we will be able to make to an evolving NHS.”
