Greg helped celebrate the start of construction work - just six weeks after planning permission was given - to build new medical student accommodation and an academic teaching building at Tunbridge Wells Hospital with a groundbreaking ceremony.

He was joined by Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust’s Chair David Highton and Chief Executive Miles Scott, Sir David Behan, Chair of Health Education England and Professor Chris Holland, Dean of Kent and Medway Medical School.

The new state-of-the-art six storey building will provide teaching facilities and high-quality accommodation for 145 medical students and trainee doctors a year. The first intake of approximately 40 Kent and Medway Medical School students will arrive in September 2022 so they can undertake their clinical placement with the Trust in years three, four and five of their degree. Once fully established, it will place 120 additional medical students with Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust each year – a 315% increase in the total number of students the Trust currently takes.

Greg said: “This is a really exciting project. Many doctors continue to work in the communities that they train in so this new facility will potentially boost the numbers of medical staff working in our local community. It has been shown that in areas where medical schools are located, the overall quality of healthcare improves.”