New maternity unit will help Rochdale families

An artists impression of the new Women and Children's unit at The Royal Oldham Hospital

New maternity, neonatal and children’s units that will serve residents across Manchester have been approved for development at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

The £44 million building plans have been given the go ahead and will mean that families from Rochdale can have their babies cared for by specialist doctors without having to travel into the centre of Manchester.

The development could also see staff being transferred from Rochdale to Oldham, as it is expected that around 150 additional members of staff will be required to provide the new services.

The announcement was made on Friday 27 August that the Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, the North West Strategic Health Authority and the Department of Health had agreed to approve the development.

John Jesky, Chairman of The Pennine Acute Trust, said: “This exciting scheme will expand and improve maternity, children’s and newborn care facilities at The Royal Oldham Hospital.

“A significant amount of work has been undertaken by the Trust together with the Children, Young People and Families NHS Network to ensure the scheme design provides the necessary services and the very best possible care for the women, children and their families who will use the unit.”

The development will mean the building of a new four-storey building on the site, with delivery rooms, obstetric theatres, a paediatric theatre, more maternity beds and a brand new Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in addition to the refurbishment of existing wards in the main hospital.

As a key feature of the ‘Making it Better’ programme, designed to improve children’s, maternity and neonatal services across Greater Manchester, the development will be the largest capital investment made by the Trust to date and it is hoped that the new children’s and maternity service will treat approximately 8,000 children a year.

Mr Sola Amu, clinical director and consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “This new development is the end point of many decades of carefully thought through improvements of maternity, paediatric and neonatal services across Greater Manchester. With this development we will see significant improvements in the quality of care and facilities for women and children.”

Planning work for the project is currently underway, with a completion date estimated for around December 2012.

Dr Mike Maresh, lead obstetrician for the Greater Manchester Maternity Clinical Network, said: “Investment in new buildings, equipment, staff and training is helping to develop a modern system of healthcare that is appropriate to the needs of children and families throughout the region.”