GIVEAWAY
Learn to code in a day for FREE! LEEDS EDITION January 2015
Get your FREE eLearning course worth £99 exclusively with QA and The University Paper FIND OUT HOW ON P25
WIN PIZZA FOR THE NEXT YEAR! P25
CLEAN BANDIT NEIL ON STUDENT LIFE AND THE LONG SLOG TO SUCCESS
PAGE 9
STUDENT ARMY TO RESCUE NHS Nearly 300 take on extra shifts to help crippled hospitals JOHN SHAW
FIRST DOWN: Captains from the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett University American football teams full story p3 prepare for a showdown as they begin the battle to claim this year’s varsity title
FIFTH-year medical students have taken on extra unpaid shifts to rescue crisis-hit NHS hospitals in Leeds. Nearly 300 �inal-year medics from the University of Leeds Medical School are being called in to help doctors tackle the increasing demands on the service. Prof Paul Stewart, dean of the faculty of medicine and health, said: ‘Recognising the current strain that the NHS is under, we wanted to offer our additional support. ‘We have excellent links with colleagues in the local NHS trusts and are very proud of our students. Not only is this volunteering a key way of getting additional experience but they are demonstrating outstanding professionalism in stepping up to support patient care and colleagues.’ Fifth year Paul McManus added: ‘This was a fantastic opportunity for me to see,
in a highly supervised environment, what it was like to work in a busy hospital setting. ‘I really welcome the chance to work with clinicians and patients to develop my skills as a doctor of the future.’ The students, who are working for a number of NHS trusts, including Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, have their travel expenses and subsistence covered. Prof Stewart added: ‘I’d like to say a big thanks to our medical students. It’s the students that make us proud by conducting themselves in the professional manner that they do. They are a credit to the school.’ But unions say the students are no replacement for a properly funded NHS. GMB regional organiser Joan Keane said: ‘It places students under a different kind of pressure. They are relatively inexperienced and if they are doing their own shifts at each hospital and then extra, they get tired and their concentration goes.’