Birmingham Children's Hospital centre up for award
A hospital's new rare diseases centre which will open next year has already been shortlisted for a national award.
Birmingham Children’s Hospital’s pioneering new rare diseases centre for children and young people is due to open its doors early in 2018.
The new centre will be part of a new on-site £37.5million Waterfall House clinical block, along with a cancer centre and additional surgical theatres.
Judges at this year’s Health Service Journal (HSJ) Awards have included it on the shortlist in the Compassionate Patient Care category.
Sarah-Jane Marsh, chief executive at Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our new rare diseases centre will be the first of its kind in the world and we could not be more proud that it has been recognised by the HSJ in this way.
“The difference our centre will make to thousands of our children and young people will be huge and we cannot wait to start welcoming patients and families in a few months’ time.
“We are also keeping our fingers crossed that the team come away with the award on the night.”
The new rare diseases centre for children has been made possible thanks to the hospital charity’s £3.65million Star Appeal, which officially closed earlier this summer after reaching its target in a little over 18 months.
Dr Larissa Kerecuk, rare diseases lead at the Trust, said: “There’s been so much hard work already to turn what was an ambitious vision for our new dedicated rare disease centre for children into a reality.
"There’s still a lot of work going on behind the scenes ahead of us officially opening the doors to patients and families early next year, but this nomination is a tremendous boost for everyone involved.”
This year’s ceremony, where the winners will be announced, will take place in London on November 22.
