Building Lifts Spirits

 

University Hospital of North Staffordshire’s new £370 million hospital has reached an important milestone. Trust Chairman Mike Brereton and Chief Executive Julia Bridgewater performed the 'Topping out ' ceremony to mark the completion of the concrete structure. The tradition of 'Topping out’ stretches back hundreds of years when celebration's of timber buildings were performed to guard off and ward against evil spirits.

Mike Brereton said: "It's an important day, the toping out ceremony is very much celebrating the efforts of the people who designed and put the whole building together. We've become accustomed each and every day to seeing men in big boots and hard hats in and out of the Trust. They have thrown up a building in what seems like no time to me. When I look around at what they have done and the skill and expertise they demonstrate, it actually takes your breath away."

Mike Brereton said that although the building itself was impressive, the care patients receive in the new building is what is important.

He said: "We have already got a taste of what the new building is going to be like in the form of the Cancer and Maternity Centre's. University Hospital serves 500,000 people, and when this hospital is fully operational, it will touch every street, and every house and every family in this community. Not just for a day or a week, but down the decades and for generations to come. We have 600,000 episodes of patient care a year and from 2012 it will take place in state of the art buildings and some of the best facilities in Europe."