Little Oscar Cooper has made history as the last baby to be delivered at the birthplace of the NHS.
Mum Chloe gave birth just before the maternity unit closed at Trafford General – where then health secretary Aneurin Bevan founded the NHS almost 62 years ago.
The ward is going as part of a huge shake-up in maternity and children’s care across Greater Manchester.
Women from Trafford will now give birth at Wythenshawe hospital, in south Manchester, or St Mary’s in the city centre.
Oscar weighed in at 7lbs 4oz and is the first baby for Chloe, 30, from Sale, and husband Paul, who works at Manchester Airport.
Chloe said: "It’s an amazing feeling to finally see him.
"We knew the maternity unit here at Trafford General was closing and we were really glad we made it in because it’s a lovely unit. If Oscar had arrived on his due date he would have been born in another hospital.
"It’s excellent that we were able to have him here and very special that he is the last baby who will be born on the unit."
Trafford is the first maternity unit in the region to close as part of the Making It Better reorganisation.
Morag Olsen, director of nursing at Trafford Healthcare Trust, said: "It is the end of an era at Trafford General Hospital. Our maternity service has been very highly thought of and has delivered many thousands of babies over the years.
"I am very proud of what our maternity staff have achieved and I am delighted that they will continue to care for local women and babies in their new roles at other hospitals."
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RT, UK (29/01/2010 at 12:12)
Anony Mouse, Macclesfield (29/01/2010 at 15:26)
Horatio Dogsbody, Flixton (31/01/2010 at 12:30)
Last week, because of the closure of Deansgate yet again, morning peak-time traffic built back along Chester Road and all parallel routes as far as Sale, with the knock-on effects on various other routes. Even with my extensive knowledge of alternative routes it took me almost an hour to reach Manchester Royal Hospital with an urgently needed item of equipment, a journey which normally takes twenty minutes using the direct route. During the recent snow everything ground to a halt, the buses vanished and nobody went anywhere except on foot unless one had a Land Rover.
Going in the other direction it only takes one incindent on the M60, the M56 or at the airport and all Wythenshawe comes to a halt.
All the bureaucrats look at is the bottom line of their spreadsheets, they have not got a clue what the effect of their decisions will mean for ordinary people. Fine, they say everyone is within 30 minutes of cover. Fine maybe on a perfect day but find a bus in the middle of the night or try driving peak-hour when somebody digs the road up or it snows! Even using an ambulance, if the journey takes three or four times as long then that ambulance is not available for use elsewhere, so either cover is reduced or more crews need to be on the road.
Athertonian (31/01/2010 at 15:46)
Up there with "streamlining bus services" (obliterating them), Every Child Matters (didn't they before?) and (Couldn't) Care (less) in the Community.
Beyond parody, isn't it? Goebbels would have been proud of the ability of today's British quangocracy to present every retrograde step as progress.