Special deliveries!

FRESH arrivals . . . Maigread Hickey and Sarit Neumann with two new-born babies

EXTRA-special Christmas presents were delivered at the Royal Oldham Hospital as newly-qualified midwives helped parents welcome their new babies.

For some of the midwives, it was their first working Christmas in the job following a recruitment drive by the Pennine Acute trust earlier this year.

A dozen new midwives are now working in Oldham as a result of the trust’s campaign to recruit new staff and boost maternity services.

Cathy Trinick, head of midwifery at Pennine Acute Trust, said: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome our new midwives.”

The recruitment drive followed a review of staffing by the trust as part of its maternity improvement plan, which included investing more than £1million to recruit 40 new healthcare assistants to support patients and midwives.

The improvement plan followed the results of an external review investigating the deaths of seven babies and three mothers at the Royal Oldham Hospital and North Manchester General Hospital between December, 2013, and July, 2014.