PRESTON and Chorley hospitals have pulled off a major coup by getting permission to recruit an extra 47 trainee consultants this year.

The move came about when hospital trust bosses managed to convince the Royal College of Physicians -- the national training body for doctors -- that the quality of training they would receive would be in line with national academic and clinical standards.

The trainee consultants are the first specialist registrars to be allocated to work at the Royal Preston and Chorley Hospital under a new system which takes into account the size and need of the local population.

Tony Curtis, chief executive of the trust, said "We have been chosen to take the specialist registrars because of the recognition that we need more doctors. It is also a recognition that our teaching is very good."

The new recruits are fully qualified doctors who will work alongside consultants for the next five years as part of their final training to specialise as consultants in a particular area of medicine or surgery. They will work across all 36 medical and dental specialities including mental health, gynaecology, paediatrics, ophthalmology and orthopaedics.

It is a major achievement for Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust -- to receive 47 out of 180 new specialist registrars appointed to ten trusts across the region -- pulled off by the Workforce Directorate, responsible for staff development, which was previously only been allowed ten new posts per year.

In the past these training posts were allocated on the basis of university deaneries at Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool.

Val Michej, acting director of the Workforce Directorate, said: "I am delighted with this unprecedented increase in trainees allocated to us.

"The response of trusts in demonstrating their ability to provide high quality training to support the posts is impressive.

"The posts will also be a permanent addition to the workforce."

Tony Curtis added: "We are delighted by the increase in specialist registrars which we hope will help us to recruit more consultants in the future by encouraging the specialist registrars to stay in the area to practise medicine."

Hospital chiefs say funding for the specialist registrars will come from the local Primary Care Trusts and will have no impact on hospital services.