Gearing up for hospital baby boom

LAST-MINUTE work is under way at the Royal Oldham Hospital in preparation for extended children’s, neonatal and inpatient maternity services which open on Monday.

The services, currently run by Rochdale Infirmary, will transfer to Oldham over the weekend to pool expertise and improve care for women, children and babies.

It will result in dozens of extra staff, from midwives and consultants to community healthcare workers, taking up post, and means that women in labour will get one-to-one care.

The move is a temporary step ahead of the hospital opening its £44 million Women and Children’s supercentre in December next year.

Existing wards at the Royal Oldham have been expanded and refurbished ready to accept Rochdale’s patients, which will mean the number of births at the hospital will swell from 3,200 to 5,300 a year.

In all, an extra 28 midwives have been recruited, on top of those which will transfer from Rochdale, bringing the team to a total of 196, although some of their work will still be carried out in Rochdale.

There will be 13 new healthcare assistants to work in the community, close to or at the homes of children, mums and new babies, and the Royal Oldham will have two extra paediatric consultants.

The changes include the opening of a children’s observation and assessment unit.

It means youngsters taken to accident and emergency will have their own area to stay, under the care of a specialist children’s team, which will decide if children need to stay in hospital or can go home.

Currently, children under observation are kept in the accident-and-emergency department alongside adults.

The changes also involve extra training in the care of children to boost expertise.