Marking our first year ‘By Your Side’ as a united Trust | News

Today (1 February) marks one year since we united and became Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust – the first of its type in the country.

Since then our 6,000-strong team has welcomed and cared for more than 120,000 women, children and families – and we’re proud to be the by the side of each and every one of them.

Our journey to offer our patients and their loved ones seamless care and a shared voice in the region and beyond continues, but it’s certainly been a busy 12 months.

Below are just some of the highlights and achievements display our values of being ‘ambitious, brave and compassionate,’ in all that we do.

Over the last year:

• Our Children’s Hospital achieved an ‘Outstanding’ rating from the Care Quality Commission – the first hospital of its kind to receive the highest award from the inspectors;
• Our joint Get a Jab, Give a Jab flu campaign was named Most Innovative at NHS Employer’s Flu Fighter Awards;
• Magnolia House, our dedicated home-from-home space where we can have difficult conversations with our families, opened its doors thanks to our generous supporters’ donations;
• KIDS and NTS, our dedicated transport service which cares for some of the most poorly babies and children in the region, celebrated its first birthday;
• Our Maternity teams helped welcome more than 8,200 babies into the world;
• Liver experts at the Children’s Hospital performed the 5,000^th liver transplant in Birmingham;
• The national Tommy’s Miscarriage Research Centre, which we proudly host at our Women’s Hospital celebrated its first anniversary and continues to work offering hope to families who suffer pregnancy loss;
• Professor Sir Bruce Keogh was appointed as our new Chairman and officially took up the role earlier this week;
• Thousands went on a bear hunt on the streets of Birmingham as part of The Big Sleuth, which raised more than £270,000 for our charity;
• The Beads of Courage programme was launched on our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Women’s Hospital, marking the milestones in the journeys of the babies they care for by creating a collection of colourful beads;
• Working alongside Heart of Foundation NHS Foundation Trust and partners, our Bump (Birmingham and Solihull United Maternity and Newborn Partnership) continued its work to offer more choice, consistency and personalisation to mums and families in Birmingham and Solihull.
• Our Staff and patients joined together to raise awareness of antibiotic resistance in our 48- Hour Review song and video;
• The oncology arm of the pioneering, national 100,000 Genomes Project recruited its first patient and, to date, more than 2,500 participants to rare diseases part of the project.
• Mr Khalid Sharif was awarded one of Pakistan’s most prestigious accolades, while Dr Bromley and Professor Darius Mirza were also recognised for their fantastic achievements.
• Our Team BCH superstars were victorious at the 2017 British Transplant Games – leaving North Lanarkshire with an impressive haul of 92 medals. We also brought back the ‘Best Children’s Hospital’ title for the 21^st year in a row. It’s all systems go for the 2018 event, which will be proudly hosted in Birmingham between 2 and 5 August this year.