New Shropshire Women and Children’s Centre opens

The centre at the Princess Royal Hospital will open over two days, today and tomorrow, and once it is fully open it will be the main inpatient facility for women and children in Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

Today will see the following services move into the centre: Gynaecology Inpatients, Emergencies, Procedures and Early Pregnancy Assessment Service, Children’s Inpatients and Children’s Oncology and Haematology.

Tomorrow Consultant-Led Maternity Services, including the Antenatal, Postnatal and Labour Wards and Neonatal Services will move into the centre.

Cathy Smith, Women and Children’s Care Group Director at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, said: “After two years of building work, I am delighted that we’re finally able to open the doors to our excellent new centre to the women and children of Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales.

“Our fantastic new centre will provide outstanding facilities within which our staff will continue to provide excellent care for women and children. Each of the wards and units are modern and spacious and contain excellent facilities which will benefit our patients, from play areas and rooms for children to a greatly improved and larger environment for babies needing intensive care than we have been able to offer in Shrewsbury.

“Pregnant women will have an opportunity, where appropriate, to give birth in our lovely new birth pool, and young oncology and haematology patients and women needing treatment will also benefit from improved environments.

“We really appreciate the input and support of patients, parents, families and other people from across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and mid Wales which have helped to shape what I’m sure will be a fantastic facility. I’d also like to thank each of our staff who has either been directly or indirectly affected by the opening of the centre for their commitment and hard work.”

The Shropshire Women and Children’s Centre can cater for up to 135 inpatients. It will provide care for:
• Women who need a consultant-led birth
• Gynaecology services for women who have to stay overnight
• Children who need to stay overnight
• Children’s Oncology and Haematology care
• Babies who need intensive and special care

Today will also see the introduction of an expanded Children’s Assessment Service at Princess Royal Hospital.

The Children’s Assessment Unit at Princess Royal Hospital will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The Children’s Assessment Unit at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital is also expanding and will open tomorrow and this will be open from Monday-Friday from 9am until 10pm (last assessment at 8pm) and on Saturdays and Sundays from 12noon until 10pm (last assessment at 8pm).

The Children’s Assessment Units will be staffed by senior Paediatricians, Advanced Paediatric Nurse Practitioners and Children’s Nurses. They are not walk-in services and are accessed only through referrals. They will receive referrals from GPs as well as internal requests for follow-ups and investigations.

Acutely unwell children will be accepted by both A&Es, which currently see 12,000 children each year at the Princess Royal Hospital and 8,000 children at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital. The majority of children who attend A&E are discharged without follow-up.

Whilst Women and Children’s Services are changing, most people accessing the services will continue to go to the same hospital as they do now.

In addition to both continuing to have A&Es and Children’s Assessment Units, both Princess Royal Hospital and Royal Shrewsbury Hospital will each have a Midwife-led Unit as well as Outpatient services.

Women having a low-risk birth will still be able to choose to have their baby at home, at one of the Trust’s five Midwife-led Units (at Oswestry, Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Shrewsbury, or Wrekin at Princess Royal Hospital) or one of the Midwife-led Units provided by the Powys Teaching Health Board.