Maternity and children wards are set to be improved at Worcestershire Royal Hospital after NHS Trust receives a slice of over £10 million of funding. 

The £10.5 million funding will expand facilities at Worcestershire Royal Hospital in Worcester and Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.

At Worcestershire Royal Hospital, part of the funding will be put towards improving maternity and children's services.

It will include a second dedicated obstetric theatre and maternity triage and assessment unit.

Funding will also be put towards remodelling the Riverbank Children's ward and a new combined paediatric assessment unit and children's clinic. 

The Alexandra endoscopy suite and WRH maternity improvements are due to be completed by the end of 2023, with the paediatric developments completed by the end of 2024.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Alexandra and Worcestershire Royal as well as Kidderminster Hospital, has been awarded the funding by the Department of Health and Social Care and NHS England following the approval of the Trust’s final business case.

Matthew Hopkins, chief executive of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, said: "These new services will complement the many other major service improvements we have delivered over the past few years and others which are currently underway, including robot-assisted surgery and a new theatre development at the Alexandra and our community diagnostic hub at Kidderminster.

"Those developments also include the refurbishment of the Aconbury East block which already includes two floors of speciality inpatient wards, an Acute Medical Unit, and Same Day Emergency Medical Care service and will – later this year – also be the location of an expanded and improved Emergency Department."

He said the improvements will mean that they have finally delivered all the developments that were agreed to support the Future of Acute Hospital Services in Worcestershire (FoAHSW) review – an overhaul of hospital services which dates back as far as 2012. 

"More importantly they will deliver significant improvements to the experience of care and outcomes for a wide range of our patients, including children, pregnant people and patients needing diagnostic tests for cancer and numerous other serious illnesses."

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Angus Thomson, who is the consultant gynaecologist and the Trust’s Divisional Director for Women and Children’s Services, called it fantastic news.

Mr Thomson said: "It is also a great boost for colleagues in our maternity and paediatric services who already provide excellent care and have been waiting patiently for the funds to build a paediatric assessment unit, clinic, triage and theatre facilities that will help them to deliver an even better patient experience".