A new version of a world-renowned course for doctors has had its UK launch at Tunbridge Wells Hospital.

Delivered by the Royal College of Surgeons, the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course trains over 55,000 doctors each year globally to provide safe, effective emergency care for patients with life-threatening injuries.

Described as the ‘gold standard’, the course is developed by a global network of leaders in trauma care and taught in over 80 countries, with the UK programme the largest in the world outside the USA.

It is taught by expert surgeons and doctors in emergency medicine, anaesthetics and other specialties.

A new edition of the course is launched every four years, to ensure doctors are taught the very latest skills and techniques in life support.

The latest version of the course (its 11th edition) was piloted in June and ran for the first time in the UK on 23 and 24 June at Tunbridge Wells Hospital, with 16 doctors the first in the country to take advantage of the new programme.

Clinicians need to update their training every four years, and completion of the ATLS course is required to progress from a resident (formerly known as junior) doctor to a consultant in certain surgical specialties, as well as emergency medicine and anaesthetics, making it a key part of medical training for a large number of doctors.

ATLS is run under the direction of Mr Guy Slater, who is Clinical Lead for Advanced Trauma Life Support UK for the Royal College of Surgeons in England, and Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Tunbridge Wells Hospital.

Mr Slater said: “We are delighted to be the first hospital in the country to offer this new version of the internationally-acclaimed ATLS course; it is a well-deserved accolade for everyone involved in medical education at the Trust. The teaching on the course is of very high quality and delivered by a large number of colleagues; we are hugely grateful to them for their contribution as the course could not run without their support.”