Wythenshawe Hospital is not accepting paediatric emergencies and is temporarily relocating all services for paediatric emergencies to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
In a statement, the hospital said: “As part of our response to the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, please note that from Tuesday 7th April 2020, we are temporarily relocating all services for paediatric emergencies to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, so Wythenshawe Hospital’s Emergency Department will not accept paediatric emergencies.
“All ambulances will now divert to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital Paediatric Emergency Department. This is to support the increased need for critical care at Wythenshawe Hospital during this time.”
In the event of an emergency, parents, guardians and carers must now take children to the Paediatric Emergency Department, Oxford Road, Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9WL. The hospital has said it is extremely important that children are not taken to the Wythenshawe Hospital Emergency Department.
Macmillan Cancer Research Centre in Wythenshawe is undergoing a major extension to support more people whose lives are blighted by the disease.
The centre is based in the grounds of Wythenshawe Hospital and is a vital service to individuals and their families who are living with cancer.
The new-look centre in the grounds of Wythenshawe Hospital will provide a much larger activity space and an additional therapy/meeting room, when the £338million refurbishment is complete.
The Macmillan team will be able to offer more counselling, complementary therapies, cancer survivorship programmes and benefits and financial advice sessions.
Debbie Smith, Macmillan Cancer Information and Support Centre Manager at Wythenshawe Hospital, said:” This investment is a fantastic opportunity to expand the centre and, more importantly, help us enhance the service we provide to meet the needs, not just physical and clinical, but also financial, emotional and psychological, of even more people affected by cancer in South Manchester.”
In 2017 the centre supported nearly 27,000 people in various ways from supplying leaflets, CDs, books, activity support groups and counselling. They also provided over 800 grants totaling to £178K, helping with heating and travel costs, clothing, new appliances for people living with cancer.
The charity urgently need schools, community groups and businesses to organise a fundraising event to help support this vital service for local people living with cancer.
For more information and fundraising ideas or to make a donation please contact cjenkinson@macmillan.org.uk.
And anyone requiring support from the centre can call the team on 0161 291 4876.
Transport for Greater Manchester has submitted a funding bid to the Department for Transport to extend the Metrolink’s Airport line.
The Airport line currently terminates at Manchester Airport’s railway station, but the funding bid outlines the potential to extend the line with an additional stop at Terminal 2.
According to a report in The Place North West, TfGM said the expansion would “align with Manchester Airport Group’s intended expansion to Terminal 2 and the future development of Airport City”.
TfGM will also look into extending the Metrolink from Terminal 2 to the proposed HS2 station at the airport, which forms part of the wider “Western Loop” initiative, which could potentially link the HS2 station at the airport to Wythenshawe Hospital and the surrounding area.
Other options to make the airport a transport hub for the area include proposals for a busway and cycleway linking Altrincham with the airport’s HS2 station; additional bus priority lanes on the existing road network; and an extension of the railway station’s platforms to increase capacity.
The Transplant Team at Wythenshawe Hospital have successfully carried out a pioneering type of transplant – just the fourth centre in the world to do it
The transplant recipient underwent the revolutionary procedure at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) using an Organ Care System which can restore the heart to beating after it has been donated.
Mr Rajamiyer Venkateswaran, Director of Transplantation and Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at Wythenshawe Hospital, which is part of MFT, said: “This is a different type of transplant because in this case the transplant occurred after using a ‘Donation After Circulatory Determined Death’ (DCD) donor heart – where the donor is not brain dead but has sustained severe brain injury.
“In this scenario the treatment of the donor is withdrawn and allows cardiac arrest to happen. The heart is then retrieved from the donor and is resuscitated on the Organ Care System machine.
“I am so proud of our team at the Transplant Centre. We are the first centre in the North West, the third centre in England and the fourth centre in the world to carry out this particular procedure. It is an amazing development as previously we would not have been able to use these hearts for transplantation.”
The Transmedia Organ Care System (OCS) often referred to as the ‘heart in box’ increases how long a donated heart can be kept outside the body, for up to eight hours. The portable machine pumps blood round the heart to restore functionality. Once the heart is beating again, it also allows surgeons to assess the donor heart more extensively; whether the donor heart is suitable for transplantation, reducing the risk of rejection.
Mr Venkateswaran added; “Using the OCS in this way enables us to have more time to do thorough assessments of donor hearts, undertake blood tests and then proceed with the transplant if appropriate.”
Anthony Anderson, 58, from Swinton, Manchester, who received the heart was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy in 2002 after he began feeling tired and suffered with palpitations.
He said: “My symptoms worsened significantly and I was referred to Wythenshawe Hospital in early 2017. I was being treated on the Intensive Care Unit and then put on the super urgent waiting list for a transplant.
“When I got the call I felt very emotional – really happy, but of course sad that someone had to die to help me and I will be forever grateful to my donor.”
Anthony was able to return home just weeks after his transplant and is continuing to be monitored regularly.
“I think the transplant team at Wythenshawe Hospital are out of this world. I’m getting stronger every day and my plan is now to enjoy retirement with my wife Lisa, a paediatric nurse at Salford Royal, ” he added.
Mr Venkateswaran also hopes that by utilising hearts from this new source could now increase the number of transplants undertaken at Wythenshawe Hospital.
He said: “We currently undertake 25 heart transplants a year, but we are hoping this could increase by 20%, just by now starting to use hearts from DCD donors.”
The OCS machine has been funded by the New Start Charity which donated £125,000. New Start is a charity set up to provide financial assistance to the heart and lung transplantation programme and future clinical developments in heart and lung surgery at Wythenshawe Hospital.
In 2017, Wythenshawe Hospital celebrates the 30th anniversary of its first transplant operation.
Wythenshawe Hospital is not accepting paediatric emergencies and is temporarily relocating all services for paediatric emergencies to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.
A man has appeared in court in connection with the attack on a Wythenshawe Hospital doctor when he attended a Mosque in Altrincham on Sunday.