Olympian opens new maternity centre

Denise Lewis at maternity centre Photo: Homerton Hospital

A new state-of-the-art maternity centre at Homerton hospital was opened by Olympic gold medallist Denise Lewis yesterday.

Homerton, the hospital allocated for the London 2012 Olympic Games, has doubled the size of its maternity and newborn centre, having invested £12.5million. General Electric, a global Olympics sponsor, has donated a further £4.8million worth of equipment.

Nancy Hallett, Homerton University Hospital Chief Executive, said: “Homerton is very proud of its great service for parents and their babies and this wonderful gesture from GE will help us deliver even better quality care.

“The new hi-tech facilities will help all the babies born at Homerton, especially those who need special care – who knows, maybe one of them will be a medal winner in years to come and fulfill that Olympic legacy.”

The new facility comes only nine months after a new birth centre offering a wide range of delivery options for mothers opened at the hospital in March.

Mark Elbourne, Chief Executive of GE in the UK said: “We decided to make this donation to Homerton Hospital because it is one of the designated London 2012 hospitals. We chose to focus on maternal and newborn care to address a major local issue – infant mortality.”

Homerton University Hospital’s new maternity and newborn centre is now one of the best equipped in London. It has:

  • 22 cots in a special care baby unit
  • 20 cots in a neonatal intensive care unit
  • 16 en suite birthing rooms
  • Two birthing pools
  • En suite family accommodation
  • 32 antenatal and nine postnatal beds

Other equipment installed includes a £1million MRI scanner, new advanced technology high-resolution ultrasound units, foetal monitoring systems, neonatal x-ray units, and top-of-the-range incubators which help to reduce unnecessary handling of low weight premature babies.

Lewis said: “As a mother and an Olympian I think it is great news to see such an investment in the improvement of maternal and infant care in the area. This will be a great legacy for the people of East London.”

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