About Us

Now once again part of the NHS, we look forward to providing you with a quality product with excellent value for money.

Historically, simulated patients (SPs) were most widely used by universities to help train medical students. Increasingly, over recent years, it has been recognised that the application of SPs can not only support improving diagnostic skills, but can also improve communication skills within a variety of healthcare organisations.

With the aim of creating a unified resource to provide best practice, Yorkshire and the Humber NHS has been developing this resource since 2004, previously having commissioned CragRats to manage the resource as Simulated Patients UK. Since 2009 the resource has been brought in-house and is now once again part of the NHS.

The ambitious objective of the project is to ensure that this innovative training is available to all organisations within the healthcare economy and beyond. Our large cohort of diverse SPs, all trained and many of them with decades of experience mean we are in the position of being able to offer this highly effective resource to a wider audience. This includes both public and private sector organisations that span the country and beyond.

We are a unique resource. We have over 300 trained SPs and can react to all your current needs, no matter how large or geographically disparate. To date over 30,000 SP hours have been used successfully by universities' medical and healthcare schools, PCTs, GP practices, Community Trusts, Social Services, voluntary organisations and private sector companies. This project can help you deliver your training requirements in a way that will make a difference.