TEAMS at Colchester General Hospital have just started to improve their clinical skills by training on a hi-tech £42,725 manikin.

The senior doctor responsible for Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust buying the advanced patient simulator believes it has the potential to help health professionals improve standards of care.

Its realistic anatomy enables staff to really believe they are treating a patient. The manikin can make noises when in pain, bleeds, sheds tears, has blood pressure that can rise or fall and its lips turn blue when deprived of oxygen.

Known as a SimMan, the manikin is manufactured by Laerdal, the Norwegian company which launched its famous Resusci Anne in 1960.

Colchester Catalyst Charity provided £10,000 of the cost with the remaining £32,725 coming from the Postgraduate Medical Centre Charitable Trust Fund at Colchester General Hospital.

Investing in a manikin was the idea of Dr Andrew Eldridge, a consultant anaesthetist who is based at Colchester General Hospital.

He said: “It’s so much more than just a lump of plastic.

“It comes with a substantial degree of reality and when using it for training it’s very easy to suspend disbelief.

“What’s important is what’s inside it and the supporting computer technology which allows us to rehearse both common clinical scenarios and critical incidents to improve real patient outcomes.

“We’ve only just started using SimMan but I genuinely believe it gives us the potential to vastly improve the care we deliver.

“The trust is enormously grateful to Colchester Catalyst Charity for supporting us with such a generation donation.”

Rodney Appleyard, development officer at Colchester Catalyst, said: “We’re delighted to support a project like this that will enable doctors to provide improved care for patients.

“We’re always looking for projects that are different and which are not traditionally supported by the statutory bodies so we can add something cutting-edge and a bit extra special for the health service.

“This project definitely falls into that category of innovation, with very clear health benefits.”

Dr Eldridge said sophisticated scenarios could be created with the manikin, such as the management of patients who have epilepsy, acute asthma, blocked airways or allergic reactions to drugs.

Currently, critical care staff are training on the manikin but it will also be used by clinical staff who work in other parts of the trust, such as the operating theatres and the maternity department.