WE tend to take our NHS staff for granted – until we need them.

So it was good to see a cross-section of staff and public taking part in the 10-year celebrations of the midwifery-led birth suite at the Princess Anne Maternity Unit at the Royal Bolton Hospital.

Midwives themselves hail it as a ”home-from-home environment” where as many as 1,000 women give birth every year. It’s certainly appreciated by the many families who have used it and it definitely proves once more that in this unit, and in this hospital, there is a bank of real expertise available to us all.