Royal Children's Hospital opens its doors in Manchester
Last updated 15/06/2009 09:27:29
Royal Childrens Hospital opens its doors in Manchester
It's the size of 39 football pitches and has taken less than four years to build. But Britain's biggest children's hospital, The Royal Manchester Children's Hospital, has opened its doors.
It houses over 370 beds, 90 single bed rooms and offer specialist on-site accommodation and facilities for families and carers of patients.
A larger maternity unit, with eight en-suite delivery rooms, has the capacity to deliver an additional 1,500 babies a year (nearly 7,000 in total). Care is provided for women from pre-conception through pregnancy, childbirth and during the postnatal period.
A state-of-the-art newborn intensive care facility will offer an increased number of cots and allow optimised care for sick newborn infants.
Trust chairman, Peter Mount, explained: "Today is a great day for the future of children's services in Manchester. The Royal Manchester Children's Hospital is a truly remarkable building which has state-of-the-art facilities, yet captures the spirit of what has made our two existing children's hospitals so valued.
"Saint Mary's Hospital has a long tradition of providing maternityservices to women and families in Manchester and further afield. Last year the staff at Saint Mary's delivered over 5,100 babies."
Over the years, Saint Mary's has successfully developed a wide range of world-class medical services for women, babies and children as well as a comprehensive Genetics Centre. Staff are now looking forward to moving into these new state-of-the-art facilities."
The new facility is one of four new hospitals making up a £500m new central Manchester hospitals development.
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