It was great walking into the Hospital on Monday morning. The refurbishment of our main entrance was open for the first time. It looks amazing. It took me half an hour to get to my office as everyone I passed wanted to make comment on how much bigger and brighter it looks. We have opened up access to a courtyard to provide some space for people to hopefully enjoy our British summertime! I have to confess that throughout most of the week I have taken every possible opportunity to walk through, I am so pleased with the results.
We have spent many millions over the past 4 years on refurbishing our buildings including, The Hewitt Centre for Reproductive Medicine, The Mulberry Suite (our palliative care suite primarily reserved for the use of our oncology patients), colposcopy clinic, maternity ward and delivery suite, the Catherine Suite, and the Centre for Women's Health Research, and our services at Aintree Hospital. What is nice about the main reception refurbishment is that it is visible to all of our staff, patients and visitors. Our Estates team have done us proud. Thank you.
Today we had the official opening of the Centre for Women's Health Research and Centre for Better Births, which is a collaboration between Liverpool Women's Hospital and the University of Liverpool. Professor Ian Greer, Executive Pro-Vice Chancellor at the University of Liverpool and I were delighted to welcome the many guests who came to the official opening. A huge thank you to Professor Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer for England and Chief Medical Advisor to the UK Government for taking time out of her busy schedule to officially open the centre.
The Centre is home to the Centre for Better Births led by Professor Susan Wray, the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth Group led by Professors Jim Neilson and Zarko Alfirevich and the Sanyu Unit for International Maternal and Child Health led by Professor Andrew Weeks.
The Centre includes bespoke laboratory facilities with state of the art accommodation and equipment. It provides an environment which will allow us to develop, attract and sustain staff and collaborators and provide an important international focus for further growth and development of our key research domains: clinical trials and research synthesis in global maternal health, endometriosis, perinatal and neonatal personalised medicine and smooth muscle physiology.
Our new facility brings together a team of experts, world class researchers and exceptional clinical talent to allow them to achieve a single aim - to make pregnancy and childbirth safer for women and babies across the world.
Another week to be proud of the staff and facilities that we have at Liverpool Women's.