BRADFORD hospital buildings will become a beacon of blue to celebrate the 72nd birthday of the NHS this weekend.
Sunday, July 5 is the official anniversary and buildings and landmarks across the country will be floodlit in the iconic NHS blue to mark the historic occasion – and Bradford Royal Infirmary will be no exception.
The hospital, part of Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust will bathe its main entrance in Duckworth Lane and its Women’s and Newborn Unit in blue light from the evening of Saturday, July 4.
Commitment and skills
Chief Executive, Mel Pickup said: “I think everyone will agree that 2020 has been the most challenging year in NHS history. Over the last few months the NHS has stepped up in ways never seen before to work out how to deliver services differently following lockdown. This could not have been achieved without the commitment and skills of our people and I am incredibly proud of all of our staff at BTHFT.
“We’re lighting up our buildings this weekend to mark the birthday; they will literally glow with pride at being part of the bigger NHS family. The NHS birthday is also a poignant moment for us to reflect and remember all those who have lost their lives during the pandemic.”
Other buildings in Bradford will include City Hall, Forster Square Arches Margaret McMillan Tower. In Yorkshire, the historic city walls of York will glow as part of #LightItBlue, along with Harrogate’s Nightingale Hospital on the eve of the birthday. Across England, iconic landmarks will include Blackpool Tower, the Royal Albert Hall, The Shard and Wembley Arch.
ENDS
For further media information, please contact communications@bthft.nhs.uk or call 01274 382265
Note to Editors:
- Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:
Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is responsible for providing hospital services for the people of Bradford and communities across Yorkshire. We serve a core population of around 500,000 and provide specialist services for 1.1 million people.
Our 5,500 staff work over several sites, including Bradford Royal Infirmary, which provides the majority of inpatient services, and St Luke’s Hospital, which predominantly provides outpatient and rehabilitation services. We also manage local community hospitals at Westwood Park, Westbourne Green, and Eccleshill.
In early 2017, a new £28 million wing opened at Bradford Royal Infirmary, part of a £75m investment to improve patient care across our hospitals over a five-year period. It provides world-class facilities for elderly care, children’s services, a state-of-the-art intensive care unit with increased single-room provision and a retail concourse.
The new wing is a continuation of our work to improve patient experience after our new £2 million neonatal unit officially opened in January 2015. Our maternity services were recently shortlisted for the Royal College of Midwives’ (RCM) Midwifery Service of the Year Award, recognising excellence and innovation in the provision of maternity care.
In 2017, we also completed a £2m refurbishment of our Emergency Department (ED) as part of an ambitious vision to create a more efficient acute medicine service for the people of Bradford. It has been designed to provide a slicker and more efficient service, with faster senior clinical involvement at an early stage in the patient pathway.
As a teaching hospital, we are at the forefront of education and development in healthcare, and have an excellent reputation for research performance. We are one of the leading centres in conducting applied research in the country, particularly in quality and safety, elderly care and rehabilitation.
The Trust is home to the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) where researchers have led the development, validation and implementation of the award-winning Bradford Electronic Frailty Index (eFI) which helps calculate an elderly person’s risk of disability, impairment, falls and complications of chronic diseases, as well as their diminishing independence and capability. This is now being used by 98% of all GPs across the country.
Our award-winning Ophthalmology department is home to numerous worldwide clinical trials taking the lead in eye care research and we are one of only three sites in the United Kingdom to be enlisted in the Perioperative Enhanced Recovery Hip Fracture Care of Patients with Dementia (PERFECTED) study, which will investigate how the NHS can introduce better standards of care to improve outcomes for people with dementia.
The Trust has its own Bradford Hospitals Charity: https://bradfordhospitalscharity.org/
Follow us on Twitter: @BTHFT