AN official turf cutting ceremony has taken place to make way for a state-of-the-art £12m maternity unit for Barrow.

There was a celebration to mark the moment the spades sunk into the ground at Furness General Hospital this morning, as construction on the cutting edge centre gets under way.

The architect designed building is due to open by Christmas 2017 - and will feature 14 en-suite rooms, a special care baby unit, two dedicated theatres, a bereavement suite and garden and an advanced training centre.

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Among those in attendance were Furness General Hospital staff, bosses from the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust - the body in charge of the Dalton Road site - and families who have helped detail the project from the outset.

UHMBT director of midwifery Sascha Wells, whose 10-year-old daughter Imogen Munro dug a spade into the ground, said it was a huge day for the area.

"These are not just the foundations of the new unit going in, but the foundations of an entirely new way of working between the trust and the community.

"A new maternity unit is something we have wanted for the past 20 years and now it is finally under way.

"It's a new beginning for maternity care in the area."

A new maternity unit at FGH was one of the recommendations for improvement set out in the Morecambe Bay Investigation Report by government patient safety expert Dr Bill Kirkup.

All other Kirkup recommendations have already been achieved in what UHMBT medical director David Walker described as the biggest single piece of work ever undertaken by the organisation.

Dr Walker said: "It's very difficult to deliver truly first-class care without a first-class unit.

"This is a big step towards us having a state-of-the-art facility in which to do that."

Dalton mum Lesley Bennett, whose newborn daughter Elleanor died as a result of poor care on the unit in 2004, was on site to watch son Lewis, 11, wield a spade for the official ground-cutting event.

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And Barrow mum Angela Herdman, whose daughter Carly Scott died from an undiagnosed heart condition days after giving birth to son George in 2012, has also helped shape maternity improvements at FGH.

Mrs Herdman said: "It's been emotional, but I'm so proud to be a part of this. The families have been fully involved and listened to.

"I'm pleased that Barrow is getting something that has previously been the domain of big city hospitals - this is something our community deserves."

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