This week we are marking Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Sharoe Green Maternity Unit’s 20th anniversary, celebrating two decades of providing care for women and their families at Royal Preston Hospital.
Throughout this week we will be chatting to colleagues and patients who have fond memories of the old unit, and the work it has taken to become the exceptional facility it is today.
Today we are chatting to former consultant obstetrician Fiona Crosfill, who admits it was an emotional weekend when the old Sharoe Green closed its doors and the new unit opened 20 years ago.
She was on call covering the final day at the old site, before moving to the £17m new build when all the mums and babies had been transferred. Ambulances were running back and forth all day!
Fiona recalled: “To quote from the film Titanic: I can still smell the fresh paint in the new unit!”
Fiona looked back on the switch: “There are a lot of good memories, that is the main thing, and the team that was around us, on both sites, was fantastic.
“I looked after the old unit while the new unit was opening – I was present for the last birth as the last doctor on duty, and then spent the rest of the day at the new unit, being present for the first birth there as well.
“I can remember making a card which the midwives and I all signed to celebrate the last baby born at the old unit, it was an emotional moment!”
Fiona started work at the old Sharoe Green in October 1991, before completing her training in Lancaster and Burnley, and returning to the Trust in 2007, retiring in 2020.
She feels the new SGU was a big step forward: “It was lovely, the rooms were much bigger, they were all en-suite, the wards were spaced differently from the old-fashioned Nightingale wards on the other unit, a much more modern lay out.
“There was more privacy, it was more about the mums' experience, making them as comfortable as possible. The old Sharoe Green was old-style, utilitarian, maximum beds in minimum space. We used to have to jump in the car to run up the road if there was anyone with an urgent obstetric or gynae problem admitted there. When everything was on one site, it made life a lot easier and was a lot safer for the women.
"There are many difficult and sad moments in working with mothers and babies, as well as the happy ones, but I feel privileged to have worked with a fantastic team of midwives, doctors, theatre staff, sonographers and all of the countless other staff who do their best every day to make the Sharoe Green Unit safe and welcoming.”
