Princess Anne officially opens oncology centre and birth unit

The Princess Royal officially opened the county’s new oncology centre and midwife-led birth unit at Worcestershire Royal Hospital earlier today.

The princess arrived at the oncology centre to cheers and applause just after 11.30am and was welcomed by dignitaries including Worcester mayor Cllr Alan Amos and members of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the Royal, as well as group of smiling children from the hospital’s Smiley’s crèche, who presented her with daffodils.

She was given a tour of the centre by trust chairman Harry Turner, where she met members of staff and volunteers, spending some time speaking with each of them, before being serenaded by the Voices for Health choir, a group made up of NHS staff from around Worcestershire.

Addressing the crowd before unveiling a plaque marking the official opening of the centre, the princess said she was very impressed by the £22.5 million facility and was pleased patients in Worcestershire no longer had to travel to Coventry, Cheltenham or Wolverhampton for treatment.

“Sometimes we are very slow to understand the difficulty of adding transport to that,” she said.

“This will make a huge difference.”

She added she was particularly pleased to see how many volunteers were helping out at the centre, who opened to patients in January, and appealed for more to get involved.

“My congratulations and best wishes to those who will follow on from the volunteers because you always need more and I hope there will be more,” she said.

“This is a building which is not easy to miss so there is no excuse if you wish to lend a hand.”

Welcoming the royal visitor, Mr Turner said he was delighted she was able to officially open the centre.

“This really is an inspiring and positive story about what the NHS can achieve,” he said.

“Here our patients will receive the best care available.

“What a fantastic testament to the hard work a dedication of the team.”

Former cancer patient Paul Crawford, who now sits on the trust’s board as a patient representative, was one of the several to speak to Princess Anne and said she had been particularly interested in the difference the new centre would make to the arrangements patients had to make for their treatment.

“She was very interested in knowing about the welfare of patients,” he said.

“She was genuinely very interested.”

Among others the princess spoke to at the centre were Macmillan volunteers Val Barrett and Sue Pattison, both of whom said how pleasant she was.

Mrs Barrett said: “She made us both feel very at ease and really did seem interested.”

Mrs Pattison added: “She asked us if we needed more volunteers

“She spent time with everybody.”

Following her visit to the oncology centre the Princess visited the hospital’s new Meadow Birth Centre – which will fully open to patients today (Tuesday), slightly later than planned – where she met staff and was first to sign the guestbook.

“I hope the queue isn’t too long in the morning because I can see it could be quite popular,” she said.

“Congratulations on what you’ve achieved here.

“It’s nice to see there are options like this around.

She added she suspected the £600,000 midwife-led centre would become a benchmark for similar facilities in the future.

Leaving through the hospital’s main concourse, Princess Anne was waved off by throngs of patients, staff and volunteers. Speaking afterwards Mr Turner said the event had been “a great day”.

“It’s a huge morale boost for the staff who worked so hard here,” he said.

Following her visit to the hospital the Princess Royal visited the Severn Valley Railway as part of its 50th anniversary.