| Our Campaign to build pioneering new baby unit enters final phase!! – 02/07/2009 |
| The Forever Friends Appeal today announced a major development in its Campaign to raise the funding needed to build a new pioneering, sustainable Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) for premature and sick babies at the Royal United Hospital in Bath. The new Unit, the first of its kind, has been designed by Bath-based international architects Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and will cost £6.1M to build, of which over three quarters of the funding is now in place.At a hospital press conference today it was confirmed that the RUH has increased its commitment for the NICU project in its 2009/10 financial plans to £3million, recognising the substantial benefits that this exciting project will bring for babies, their families and for the staff providing this specialist care. This commitment means that the project will now be funded through a broadly equal partnership of NHS funds and charitable fundraising, with the Appeal’s fundraising challenge of £3.1million already well progressed.John Cullum, Chairman of The Forever Friends Appeal said “We are delighted and very excited at the news of additional NHS funding as it will now very much match the fundraising efforts of the local public and other donors to the Campaign. To date the Appeal has raised well over £1.5M for the new NICU and this announcement means that we have just over another £1.5M to raise to complete the funding for the project”.Whilst awaiting the outcome of the project’s Planning Application, the Appeal now aims to use this major step forward to help galvanise the efforts of their donors and supporters. Tim Hobbs, head of the Appeal’s fundraising team added “It’s a very significant stage in the project as we are now raising the last 25% of the funds required to provide this wonderful new groundbreaking building. Once we have planning permission which we hope will be approved over the Summer, the actual construction of the new building will commence with cutting the first turf in the Autumn of this year and the plan is for it to be fully open in early 2011. In the interim, having reached the fundraising ‘home run’, the Appeal’s task is to crack on so that we have all the money raised in the next 12 months. The local communities in the wide area served by the RUH have been wonderful in supporting the ‘space to grow’ Campaign so far and we are nearly there. However, the race is now on and we are very dependent on the public’s continued support to help complete the last part of the fundraising target on time”.
The new Bath NICU, which will care for 1 in 10 babies born in an RUH catchment area covering 500,000 people, will be the first of its kind. An increasing number of the babies that the RUH currently looks after suffer complex problems and their families can be especially vulnerable. It is believed vital that these babies and their families receive top quality care and support to avoid long term health conditions such as neurological problems and poor quality of life. The existing Unit is cramped and noisy and does not offer the best environment for this specialist care. Brigid Musselwhite, RUH Deputy Chief Executive, commented “The creation of a new NICU is giving the RUH a wonderful opportunity to look at the type of Unit it wants for the future – caring responsibly for generations of new lives. The building of a new, larger unit with better facilities has only been part of the equation. Environmentally, the construction method and fabric for the building have been given substantial consideration, not only to reduce our carbon footprint, but also to provide a greatly improved NICU which will benefit the health and wellbeing of our premature and sick babies and their families”. The NHS is watching with interest at this ground-breaking venture and recognises that there could be benchmarks set for NHS buildings of the future. With this in mind, the RUH is aiming to provide the evidence that environmental sustainability can make a major contribution to a hi-tech health operation”. In the meantime, with the project in the final design stages, the RUH is already submitting an application for consideration under the ‘Best Sustainable Design‘ category of the ‘Building Better Healthcare’ Awards Scheme. The Appeal will now be raising the last £1.5M for the new NICU from a range of sources including grant making trusts, individual donations, corporate supporters, public events and community fundraising support, plus a range of different schemes designed to suit and gratefully acknowledge donors. Now is a good time to help The Forever Friends Appeal to do something very special in building this wonderful new Unit by helping them complete the NICU ‘space to grow’ Campaign in the next 12 months. So please come on board and help us to help make this very special building a reality!!
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