Bradford Teaching Hospitals’ brand new, state-of-the-art “game-changing” Maternity theatres at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI) have been officially opened by Chief Nurse, Karen Dawber.
Both theatres are now fully operational, carrying out planned and emergency caesareans and other, complicated, deliveries.
Karen said she was thrilled with the theatres as were not only fantastic facilities, but also a really good and positive thing as they represented “life, birth, joy and new beginnings”.
The £8 million theatres were built during COVID – work never stopped, either for the builders, Tilbury Douglas, or the Maternity team which continued to deliver babies, day in, day out.
Midwife and project lead for the theatres, Fozia Arshad, worked closely with Labour Ward Manager, Angela McMillan, and Maternity Theatres Lead, Jen Inglis, and the whole of the team to balance running an extremely busy service alongside a major new build.
Fozia said the new theatres – part of the Trust’s drive to deliver outstanding maternity services to mums and babies – provided a whole new, better and more efficient way of working for the theatres team.
“The theatre environment is so much better, there’s more space and storage so we’re able to have everything in one place. It makes our working day better – professionally and mentally, as we now have such a nice environment,” Fozia explained.
Jen added: “Really importantly, it’s also a much better environment for women: it’s a softer clinical environment for them and their dignity is better protected. This is all about the woman’s journey and remembering that women are at the centre of everything we do.
“The new layout means they can see their baby at all times, especially if baby is taken to the resus area, and we’ve got a new theatre waiting area. We’ve already had some lovely comments from women who’ve used the theatres.”
Based right next to the Women’s and Newborn Unit at BRI, the new development includes two theatres and associated recovery rooms and other space.
Next on the list will be remodelling the old theatres into enhanced maternal care rooms and staff areas, and finally converting the existing staff room into a High Dependency Unit delivery room.
This marks another major step in the Trust’s journey towards providing outstanding maternity services and making strategic improvements to its hospitals’ estate.
