Just what the doctor ordered
Reporter: Marina Berry
Date published: 01 September 2010
150 new jobs at £44m women and tots centre
OLDHAM is to get a £44 million women and children’s supercentre, bringing a massive boost to patient care.
The cutting edge development for the Royal Oldham Hospital was given the green light yesterday and is expected to be completed by December, 2012.
Proposals for the massive project were revealed exclusively by the Evening Chronicle 16-months ago.
It will bring 150 new jobs to the borough, and be one of three supercentres across the region which offer the highest level of intensive care to the sickest babies.
The multi-million pound unit will house maternity, neonatal and children’s services, and treat around 8,000 children a year.
The £44 million cost is the largest capital investment ever made by the trust, and is part of a bid to improve children’s, maternity and neonatal services across Greater Manchester. It will involve the construction of a four-storey building behind the accident and emergency department, as well as refurbishment of existing wards in the main hospital.
It will have new delivery rooms, obstetric theatres, a paediatric theatre, extra maternity beds and a new neonatal intensive care unit. It means babies from Oldham, Rochdale and neighbouring districts will be cared for by specialist neonatal doctors and nurses in a modern, purpose-built unit instead of having to travel to the centre of Manchester.
Maternity services will be used by women from Oldham and Rochdale, and a new state-of-the-art children’s unit will have a dedicated children’s assessment and observation service.
Refurbished wards will house a gynaecology assessment and early pregnancy assessment unit, foetal maternal medicine, an ante-natal clinic, a parents’ rooms, five recovery rooms for women who have given birth, and a midwife-led unit with “home-from-home” comforts.
Mr Sola Amu, clinical director and consultant in obstetrics and gynaecology at the trust, said it was “fantastic news,” and the culmination of “many decades of carefully thought-through” plans, which would see “significant improvements in the quality of care and facilities for women and children.”
Dr Mike Maresh, lead obstetrician for the Greater Manchester Maternity Clinical Network, added: “Once complete, the investment in Oldham will be the final piece of the jigsaw in delivering the improvements to children’s and maternity services promised as part of the Making it Better programme.
*The go ahead for the scheme comes less than six months after a £17 million radiotherapy centre, linked to the Christie Hospital, was opened at the Royal Oldham Hospital.
Other recent schemes include a £9 million vascular and surgical unit and a £6 million haematology unit, both opened this year, and in 2007, a new £17.5 million pathology laboratory, a £2.3 million mortuary, the £1.3 million Victoria Breast care unit and £170,000 revamp of the accident and emergency department.
The Pennine Acute Trust is also in discussion regarding increasing car parking capacity adjacent to the Royal Oldham Hospital by around 500 spaces.
