After 46 years at the forefront of maternity care, the Glasgow hospital known affectionately as the “Queen Mum’s” will finally close its doors to expectant mothers on Wednesday.

However, while there will be some sadness as the last admissions are taken at 8am, the legacy of the Queen Mother’s Hospital lives on in the 160,000 plus babies delivered safely since it opened on January 12 1964, many in the most challenging medical circumstances.

The closure of the hospital is part of a review of acute services by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, which will cut the number of maternity hospitals from three to two and include the creation of a new £841million South Glasgow Hospital campus, due to be completed in 2015.

The new hospital will combine a new £28m maternity wing, already up and running, and a dedicated £100m children’s hospital to replace Yorkhill as well as adult acute services.

Experts say having all the services on one site, will allow doctors, nurses and midwives to give mothers and babies with serious health problems the best chance of survival.

Robert Calderwood, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Chief Executive said: “In its 46 year history the Queen Mother’s Hospital has played an important part in helping to shape and develop maternity services in Glasgow.”

Deborah Mackinnon, 49, a ward sister for 29 years, said staff would be very emotional when the hospital finally shuts its doors on Wednesday.

“It will be a wrench. I had two of my children here.

“The staff are very special at the Queen Mum’s.

“We all work as a team and not in individual departments.”

When the Queen Mum’s opened in 1964, next to Yorkhill children’s hospital, it was one of the world’s most advanced maternity hospitals.

Over the years it has been responsible for a number of major innovations, perhaps most notably as the first hospital to use ultrasound technology to diagnose problems in the womb, now standard medical practice.

The scanner was developed by Professor of Obstetrics Ian Donald (1910-1987) who was also heavily involved in the planning and design of the Queen Mum’s.

The first four-dimensional ‘real time’ ultrasound scanner was launched at the hospital in 2002 and a year later the Ian Donald Fetal Medicine Unit was opened.

The hospital also helped break down cultural barriers by launched first breast-feeding workshop for Asian mothers in 2000.

The Queen Mum’s was built to address a shortage of maternity beds in Glasgow and an increasing need to meet teaching and research requirements which had expanded greatly after the Second World War.

When the hospital opened it was likened to a “four-star holiday camp” by one journalist and featured rooms with television, radio sets and ashtrays!

The outpatient department included a consultative clinic with dietetics support, a social services department and a Mothercraft Training Centre.

The Diagnostic Department on the ground floor of the hospital housed a radiology and clinical photography dark room and a sonar department for ultrasounds.

In the 1970s, one of the key functions of the Queen Mum’s was research and undergraduate and post-graduate teaching, supporting Glasgow’s first properly equipped department of obstetrics.

Teaching facilities included a training school for midwives, in use until 1991.

Preserving the vital link between the Queen Mum’s and Yorkhill hospital was a crucial part of an Evening Times campaign.

The campaign won a commitment from the then Scottish Executive to build a £100m children’s hospital at the Southern General where maternity and children’s care would be sited side by side.

The new children’s hospital is not expected to be completed until 2015, a delay which is causing some concern as it means sick babies who need specialist care may have to transported across the city.

However the health board say that stringent protocols are being developed for the intervening period until services are brought together to ensure that mothers and babies will have immediate access to the care they require.

The board says mums-to-be have access to the latest technology at the new maternity unit at the Southern, including a new fetal medicine unit, where babies can be diagnosed and treated before birth.

Capacity has also been increased at the Princess Royal Maternity at the Royal Infirmary following the creation of four new en-suite birthing rooms and two new birthing pools.

 

TIMES FILE

On December 14 1957 the Department of Health granted permission for a new maternity hospital adjacent to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill.

The £790,000 contract to build the Queen Mother’s Hospital was handed to Crudens Ltd in 1961.

The hospital opened to patients on Saturday January 11 1964, while construction work was still being completed.

The first baby, James George Bryson McDonald Aitken Wright, was delivered the following day, on Sunday January 12.

James was the first of 4,767 births at the hospital in 1964/65.

HRH The Queen Mother performed the opening ceremony on September 23 1964 and she personally suggested that the hospital be called "The Queen Mother’s Hospital".

Among the clinicians, midwives and officials welcoming the Queen Mother was Professor of Obstetrics Ian Donald, who is recognised world-wide for his work developing the first ultrasound scanner.

lMore than 160,000 babies have been born at the Queen Mum’s since it opened.