“Sarve santu niramaya” ~ Let all be healed (Sanskrit)
The Staff:
Ciarán Doherty – President
Nickie Kupakanjana – Deputy
Iana Martini – Secretary
Jessica Langtree – Publicity Officer
Geoff Sham – Treasurer
Sasha Malalasekera – Plymouth Chair
George Holland – Plymouth Secretary
Charlotte Turnock – Plymouth Publicity Officer
Keir Kerrigan – Truro Chair
About PSTM:
Welcome to the Peninsula Society of Tropical Medicine, a student-run society designed to organise lectures, talks and events regarding infectious disease & tropical medicine to PCMD students of all years.
The tropics are home to a raft of dangerous diseases; viral, bacterial and parasitic, some currently untreatable, waiting for breakthroughs in tropical medicine, and others entirely preventable that lead to needless death without proper treatment or medical supplies. Diseases such as malaria, dengue, yellow fever, ebola, HIV and schistosomiasis result in huge numbers of deaths in the developing world every year. Even diseases such as cholera, largely eliminated from the West, still plague Africa, Asia and South America.
From the environment to conflict, poverty to famine, the tropical and subtropical world faces huge challenges in health care.
Not only this but thanks to climate change the resulting increase in global temperatures are causing tropical diseases and vectors to spread to higher altitudes in mountainous regions, and to higher latitudes that were previously spared, such as the Southern United States, the Mediterranean area, etc. making tropical medicine relevant in more countries of the world than ever.
The Peninsula Society of Tropical Medicine aims to give students a leg up into understanding the world of tropical infectious disease, the impact they have on poor countries and the challenges facing the developing world in managing health care. Whether you are interested in specialising in Infectious Disease (ID), Tropical Medicine (TM) or working in the tropics during your career (eg. MSF, Red Cross, Médecins du Monde), the PSTM will help prepare you.
About PCMD:
The School was established on 1 August 2000 following a successful bid to the Government, as part of a national expansion of medical student numbers in the UK. The bid was creatively led by Professor Sir John Tooke, who was then working in a joint appointment between the University of Exeter and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. Professor Tooke was subsequently appointed as the school’s first Dean, a post he still holds; his vision and drive have been recognised nationally by his appointment as Chair of the UK Committee of Heads of Medical Schools, and by the award of a knighthood in the New Year Honours list for 2007. The school was opened as a part of the British Government’s attempts (under the Labour Party) to train more doctors, which also saw Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of East Anglia Medical School, Hull York Medical School and Keele University Medical School open their doors.
Undergraduate Degree Programme
Peninsula Medical School’s Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BM,BS) degree programme has been designed specifically to develop students to meet the challenges facing health care in the new century. The first intake of 130 undergraduate students commenced their studies on 30 September 2002. From September 2003, the annual intake rose to 167 and in January 2006 the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, announced that the Peninsula Medical School had been awarded funding for a further expansion. The additional UK and overseas places increased the School’s intake to 214 from September 2006 .
Highlights of the training include:
- Being community-wide. The School involves the student in health care provision in a wide range of community-based settings throughout Devon and Cornwall and thus provides a clinical educational experience more suited for the new NHS.
- Placing particular emphasis on training doctors to be part of a multi-professional team and to understand and appreciate the roles of other health care professionals.
- A high level of close clinical supervision of students by experienced NHS consultants and general practitioners with ring-fenced funding for teaching.
- Emphasising the importance of competence and confidence in Clinical Skills.
- A rigorous assessment structure which enables the accurate identification of problem students at an early stage in training.
Undergraduate Programme Structure
For the first two years of the undergraduate programme students are based at either the University of Exeter or the University of Plymouth. The learning emphasis is placed upon biomedical sciences, taught within the context of relevant clinical problems. From the first week of the programme students learn in various community-based clinical environments.
In years three and four, students spend the majority of their time in acute and community-based clinical placements and are based at one of the School’s 3 main localities in Exeter, Truro or Plymouth.
During year five students are attached to clinical apprenticeships with general practitioners and consultants throughout Devon and Cornwall.
