NSW Health Minister Ryan Park opens South East Regional Hospital's simulation centre

The pair of scissors on the "baby's" bed was also a little disturbing, but they were only there for the ribbon cutting about to take place.

South East Regional Hospital's simulation centre was officially opened on Thursday, September 8, during a visit from NSW Minister for Health Ryan Park.

The facility has innovative state-of-the-art technology able to simulate medical scenarios for staff in training without any risk to real patients.

The mannequins - there are adult versions as well as the pediatrics one - can "breathe", have pulses, veins for intravenous injections, internal fluids able to be extracted, and can bleed.

All of which is designed to give trainee doctors and nurses realistic scenarios where they can learn and be assessed in a simulated medical environment.

Mr Park was joined by Member for Bega and Parliamentary Secretary for Health Michael Holland, chief executive of the Southern NSW Local Health District Margaret Bennett, ANU school of medicine staff and students, and hospital employees at the launch.

Mr Park said the facility would have a lasting legacy on the region's ability to attract and retain staff at SERH.

"Today we are opening up a facility, a training centre, but health care is delivered by the men and women in this room and in this hospital," Mr Park said.

"When I'm asked what keeps me up at night, without a doubt it's staffing and workforce challenges.

"What we have to do is make sure we are retaining, encouraging and incentivising staff to stay, and what I see here today is a big part of that.

"In meeting with many of you before today I've had a really good opportunity to understand how important professional development and ongoing training is, as part of a suite of measures we do to attract and retain staff, particularly in regional and rural health care.

"What we know from workforce data and workforce trends is that our young professionals are looking for a place where there is ongoing professional development and training opportunities.

"So to have this facility in a great district is something I'm really proud of."

Dr Holland said partnerships between NSW Health and universities, such as the one on show between SERH and the Australian National University's School of Medicine, were "special" and vital in terms of medical student training opportunities.

"I'm told 100 students a year come through South East Regional Hospital alone to do their training," he said.

"And that doesn't take into account the number of students that go through the Eurobodalla and other areas within Southern NSW Local Health District."

Dr Holland also said simulation opportunities for training were "very close to my heart" given his experiences as a long-time obstetrician.

"We had a system set up when I was in obstetrics called PROMPT to simulate uncommon, rare medical emergencies.

"It was like the pit crew of medical emergencies of that time."

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Dr Nathan Oates - director of prevocational education and training at SERH - gave demonstrations of the mannequins on the day and even had Mr Park attempting to intubate the "patient" with a laryngoscope.

"The first thing you will notice is that they are a little unusual looking," Dr Oates said.

"They are as realistic as possible in the circumstances, but the purpose of this is not to have a mannequin that looks exactly like a person.

"The purpose is to replicate in some way a clinical situation that makes, particularly junior staff as they're learning, feel a little bit stressed.

"It will be the kind of situations where there is some kind of time critical element to treatment."

Dr Oates said a series of different clinical scenarios could be replicated with the mannequins, with assessors able to remotely control them and their respective digital monitors from an observation room.

"We can do that in a way that's completely safe and no patients are at risk."

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