Shropshire hospitals in test run to new women and children's centre
The new neonatal ward at Princess Royal Hospital will provide better care for ill and premature babies in Shropshire, health chiefs said as they carried out a 'test run' between Shrewsbury and Telford.
The unit, part of the new £28 million Women and Children's Centre due to open at the hospital in two weeks, will be able to care for up to 23 babies.
Neonatal care is currently provided in Shropshire at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital at a ward that has been described as "cramped" and out-dated".
Preparations are going on behind the scenes to get the unit ready for opening day on September 29 - and a dry run was carried out yesterday, transporting a baby dummy from the Royal Shrewsbury to Princess Royal in a special ambulance.
Dr Alex Philpott, of the West Midlands neonatal transfer network, was in the ambulance along with driver Ray White.
They met up with Sister Carolyn Smith at Telford, who will be working in the new ward, and the trio then plotted the route babies would be taken to the ward before discussing where they would go when they got there.
Dr Philpott said health chiefs were working on a 90-minute turnaround to get babies from Shrewsbury to Telford and for the ambulance to get back again.
She said: "Everything went to plan in terms of timings and we were very pleased with it.
"Doing a 'dry run' as it were was very important. I'm certainly of the opinion that you can't ever plan enough for this type of thing.
"We have been meticulous about this in recent weeks, but even today certain challenges and problems came up which we will now look at and which we hadn't even thought about before actually doing it for real. So in that sense it has been really useful.
"The difference between the two units is one word - space.
"The unit at Shrewsbury was very cramped and that made it far from ideal.
"I have been involved in lots of neonatal service transfers and from what I have seen everything is in place here to make this a success."
Carolyn said she had worked at the ward in Shrewsbury and could not wait to get started in the new ward in Telford.
"Today was about meeting Alex and we now have a link between the two of us," she said.
"We got the chance to go through what the requirements will be on the day.
"The unit at Shrewsbury is old and dated now. It is very cramped.
"With the new ward, we can provide better facilities and better care.
"There will be a lot more room around the cot and incubator for families.
"We have got three en-suite bedrooms for parents about to go home or for those who have particularly poorly babies and they don't want to leave them.
"We have a kitchen and utility room.
"There are facilities at Shrewsbury, but nothing like the scale we will have here.
"There will be improved breast feeding facilities too."
The new Women and Children's Centre will open at Telford on September 29.
From that day children's inpatient services and oncology and haematology services will move from the Royal Shrewsbury to the Princess Royal.
The following day, on September 30, neonatal services and consultant-led maternity will also move over and the centre will open in full.
More than 600 people attended a recent open weekend to get an exclusive first look around the new centre.
Womens and childrens hospital services
Monday, September 29
On this date the following services will move from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to the Shropshire Women and Children's Centre at the Princess Royal Hospital:
Childrens inpatient services and oncology and haematology services
Gynaecology inpatient services (care and treatment requiring an overnight stay)
Tuesday, September 30
On this date the following services will move from the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital to the Shropshire Women and Children's Centre at the Princess Royal Hospital:
Consultant inpatient maternity services
Neonatal services
