New women and children’s centre at The Royal Oldham Hospital

Women and Children’s Super Centre at The Royal Oldham Hospital

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The Royal Oldham Hospital is set to open its doors the new women and children’s facility on 3 November, but prior to that, an open day tour gave the public from Oldham, Middleton, Rochdale and surrounding areas the opportunity to visit some of the floors of the new facility and meet the staff.

The new facility includes a major new purpose-built four storey building, the refurbishment of existing wards, new delivery rooms, obstetric theatres, a paediatric theatre, maternity beds and a brand new Level 3 neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

The paediatric inpatient service will be the first service to move into the new facility on 3 November followed gynaecology outpatient, endoscopy and antenatal day unit on 1 December; the neonatal unit, delivery suite, antenatal and postnatal services on 3 December and finally the acute medical unit on 14 December.

Once complete, The Royal Oldham Hospital will be one of three regional neonatal centres providing the highest level of intensive care to the smallest and most vulnerable babies. It is expected that the new children’s service will treat approximately 8,000 children a year from the Oldham, Rochdale and adjacent districts, in a new state-of-the-art children’s unit.

The neonatal intensive unit will consist of 37 cots with 9 intensive care, 9 high dependency and 19 special care cots.

The new paediatric services will have a total of 40 beds which will include inpatient services, day case facilities and Paediatric Observation and Assessment services.

Yvonne Tunstall, divisional nurse manager for women and children’s services at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “We are all really excited about the new unit. The staff cannot wait to move into their purpose built facilities and welcome patients into a bright and airy building.

"Staff, parents and children have been heavily involved in choosing equipment and furnishings especially for the patient and family areas and waiting rooms.

"Our new improved services centre around a fabulous theme, based on the four seasons of the year, and provide an outdoor play area and a spacious, comfortable environment for children, families and staff.

“Patient safety is our main priority and we are working hard to plan the safe transfer of services into the new facility.”