A key milestone in the construction of a flagship multi-million pound healthcare training facility for the North of Scotland was celebrated yesterday.

Staff of the University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian joined guests at a special 'topping out' ceremony to mark building work reaching the top height of the Suttie Centre for Teaching and Learning in Healthcare at Foresterhill.

The new £20m five-storey centre will provide a superbly equipped training facility which will ensure medical and healthcare staff can keep their skills right up to date.

The new building will feature purpose-designed facilities for the teaching of anatomy and clinical skills to medical students in a move that is expected to attract even more applications for places to Aberdeen's highly regarded Medical School.

As well as the medical teaching and training benefits, the new facility will foster multidisciplinary training and working, with a café for staff and students, and a landscaped garden area that can also be enjoyed by visitors and hospital patients.

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The building has also been designed and engineered to the highest standards of environmental sustainability.

Professor C Duncan Rice said: "The new Suttie Centre for Teaching and Learning in Healthcare will be an exceptional addition to the Foresterhill health campus that we share with NHS Grampian. This new development symbolises our joint commitment to excellence, to the highest quality of education and professional development of healthcare practitioners of all disciplines, and to delivering very real benefits for our local communities."

Dr David Cameron, Chairman of NHS Grampian, who is also helping to mark the occasion, said: "This facility provides a unique opportunity to build on Aberdeen's excellent reputation as a centre for training. It is a wonderful boost not just for the academic reputation of the north east, but for the NHS in Grampian and beyond, and will enhance the preparation of future generations of medical and healthcare students of many disciplines."

The building has been designed by Edinburgh architects Bennetts Associates and is being constructed by Mansell.

The firm's Divisional Managing Director, George Hood, said: "We are delighted to have reached this major milestone on schedule. The project team - led by Richard Hore, Technical Manager, and Scott Walker, Project Manager - has worked well together on this exciting development and we now look forward to the final delivery of the building, which will be a credit to Aberdeen and the North-east."

(GK/JM)