Photos: LSI Architects

The £5m Clinical Imaging and Research Centre at the hospital will house two brand new scanners – CT and MRI – improving the scanning capacity for hospital patients.

This weekend, a local clinic will be raising money for the unit, by offering cut-price therapy sessions at The Forum.

Almost 6,000 babies were born at the N&N in 2012, up from 4,855 in 2003/4. In response, the hospital opened a new midwifery-led birthing unit in August 2011 to cater for 4 more pregnant women at a time on Blakeney Ward.

The idea of the new unit is to allow women with straightforward births to have a natural delivery in a more homely and less medical setting. The hospital provides a midwife service from its 12-bed delivery suite, and a home birth service from the hospital’s community midwives.

Baby Hattie Rose was born in the unit in January making her the 500th baby born there. Mum Aisha Heward, who is a bar-maid in Norwich, said: “It’s such a lovely tranquil unit, it really helped my to relax and be at ease. The whole positive experience of having both my children at the NNUH has led me to want to train as a midwife when my children are older.”

This Saturday (4th February 2012), The Orange Grove Clinic in Norwich will be raising money for the unit. They’ll offer a range of 15 minute taster sessions at The Forum including massage, reflexology and acupuncture for £5, with all money going towards buying more equipment for the unit.

Emergency arrangements were made late last night, after contractor The Fountains Group went into administration.

The Fountains Group plc held an £8 million contact with Norwich City Council to cover street cleaning, tree management and grounds maintenance at parks, cemeteries and open spaces in the city. The waste management company, Biffa, who provide the city’s rubbish collections, were subcontracted by them, leaving questions over what would happen next.

The City Council, who had been given no warning that the group would go into administration, started immediate discussions with the administrators, The Fountains Group and Biffa to make sure key services such as bin collections continue.

Alan Waters, cabinet member for resources at Norwich City Council, said: “Our absolute priority is that we continue to provide the waste and recycling collections and other important services to our residents. As soon as we were told, we went into immediate discussions about how to maintain the waste and recycling contract with Biffa so that people’s bins continue to be emptied and their recycling collected.

We also focused on how to deliver the services Fountains has been providing, such as street cleaning, tree management and grounds maintenance at parks, cemeteries and open spaces in the city. We have already spoken to the administrator as a matter of urgency to discuss the continuation of these contracts and what we can do to try and protect local jobs. Sadly, this is another major company which has ceased to trade because of the difficult economic conditions and these unforeseen situations are now a financial reality for large organisations like ourselves, especially in the public sector.”

150 staff at The Fountains Group were told they were being made redundant yesterday. The company subcontracted the waste and recycling element of the contract to Biffa, worth £3.3 million per year, delivered by 60 staff.

A spokesperson from Biffa said this afternoon: “Biffa’s senior managers and the council are discussing possible options for the short and longer term future of the refuse and recycling collection contract.”

Samir Jeraj, who represents Town Close ward, argues it’s time for tenants to come together to fight for decent conditions and rents.

Read Samir Jeraj’s thoughts, over in our Opinion section.

Want to submit an Opinion piece to us? Email editor@southnorwichnews.co.uk

Organisers are hoping even more will sign up for this summer’s event.

Mums, daughters, sisters and grandmas are being encouraged to sign up for this year’s Race for Life at Norfolk Showground in May.

Women can choose whether to walk, jog or run the 5k or 10k route. Last year, 9,456 women took part the Norwich event raising over half a million pounds for Cancer Research UK.

Events manager Gemma Turpin said: “We know many women want to take part in Race for Life but are worried they won’t be able to complete the course.  We want to reassure them that Race for Life is not about being fast or fit.  Instead, it’s a celebration of sisterhood and hope.”

According to Cancer Research UK, every two minutes someone in the UK is told they have cancer.

To join Norwich versus cancer on Saturday 19th or Sunday 20th May, enter Race for Life 5k or 10k or call 0871 641 1111.

An unusual collection has gone on display at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital (NNUH).

Raising awareness of organ donation, the 24 vinyl figures each represent one of the 9 transplantable organs or tissues.

The dolls have been donated to the Hospital Arts Project by the Hospital Organ Donation Committee and are the creation of New York-based artist David Foox, who had a close family member who needed a double lung transplant.

“Organ donation is the single most important decision we can make in our lives simply because it means saving many other people when you no longer need your body,” says David Foox.

According to the NNUH, there are currently 10,000 individuals in the UK waiting for a life-saving or life-changing organ transplant and three of these people die every day on the waiting list. 29% of the population are registered as donors. Find out more online via the Organ Donation Register.

Some services, such as A&E and cancer treatment, will operate as normal, but others will be hit.

The hospital is asking the public to use emergency services appropriately tomorrow, to prevent them from becoming over-stretched.

Seven unions have voted to take industrial action: UNISON, Unite, the Society of Radiographers, Managers in Partnership, the Chartered Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists, British Association of Occupational Therapists and the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists.

The Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Midwives and the British Medical Association have not balloted their members on taking industrial action.

Anna Dugdale, Chief Executive of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Trust, said “We are very sorry for the stress and inconvenience this will cause to our patients and their families and we will do everything in our power to rearrange those patients affected as soon as possible. We are grateful to our staff for ensuring that surgery for cancer patients will not be affected.”

But she added some services will be operating as normal: “We are asking patients who are due to be admitted or to attend a clinic or outpatient appointment on 30th November to attend as normal unless informed by the hospital”.

Updates will be available via the hospital website as the full extent of the action becomes clearer.

The ‘Give thanks service’ at the cathedral is organised by local charity, Big C, for anyone whose life has been affected by cancer.

The procession will start outside City Hall at 6.15pm, ahead of the service which starts at 7pm at The Cathedral of St John the Baptist.

The service will be attended by The Lord Mayor and Sheriff of Norwich Chris Higgins, as Big C are this year’s civic charity. Councillor Jenny Lay said; “I hope people will join us and the Big C in this service of thanks. The service and procession will be a time to give thanks for those who continue to fight this terrible illness and for those we have already lost to remember them with love and thanks for their lives.”

Cathryn Parrish at Big C said; “Big C was formed here in Norfolk for the people of Norfolk & Waveney.  We want to come together with all families and friends that have been affected by cancer, and give our deepest thanks for having shared our lives with those we love. We’d love you to join us if you can.”

Seats can be reserved by contacting Big C and all are invited take part in the service which includes carols, prayers and readings.

City Hall joins other monuments across the world, lit up in blue as part of a global diabetes campaign.

Norwich City Council leader Councillor Brenda Arthur said: “We are delighted to support the important work going on in GP practices, at the hospital and with the World Health Organisation to highlight the developments taking place to tackle diabetes and help people who live with the condition.”

Consultant in diabetes at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital, Professor Mike Sampson added:  ”The risk of getting Type 2 (adult) diabetes can be reduced with changes in diet and lifestyle, and good diabetes care can reduce the risk of getting complications, so its important to detect people at risk or with undiagnosed diabetes as early as possible.”

Some 2,500 people in Norfolk are diagnosed with diabetes each year and it is predicted there will be about 70,000 people with diabetes in Norfolk by 2030.

The Institute of Food Research (IFR) has been awarded £750,000 in funding to help combat the problems caused by obesity.

Professor Peter Wilde at the IFR is investigating whether it’s possible to produce food ingredients which can delay fat digestion in part of the stomach. The funding comes from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and follows 20 years worth of research at the IFR into food structures, including the way fats interact.

Scientists believe they are gaining an increased understanding the way appetite works and how it is controlled by hormones, leading to efforts to design foods that can modulate it.

The project involves world-leading experts in gut hormones and satiety from Imperial College London, experts on human fat digestion from Glasgow and satiety researchers from the University of Leeds.

Click here to read the full article from Norwich’s IFR.