Minister tours Newham hospital

The capital has a new maternity unit. It is in Newham University Hospital in one of London's poorest boroughs. Newham has the highest birth rate in the capital and now has this new maternity unit to help it cope. The full story now from our Health Correspondent Liz Wickham.

Minister for Public Health, Dan Poulter MP, will visit the new £17.5m Maternity Unit at Newham University Hospital.

The unit provides maternity care for women throughout Newham, one of the most deprived communities in England in social, housing and health outcome terms.

The borough has the highest birth rate and one of the youngest populations in the UK.

It also has the highest number of births to mother's from outside the UK in the country - Newham remains the local authority with the highest proportion of births to non-UK born women -77per cent in 2011 (ONS).

In 2007 the hospital says it delivered around 5,000 babies - by 2015 that figure is expected to reach 6,500.

The Minister will tour the centre's antenatal, inpatient and postnatal departments and meet Matron for Maternity Inpatients, Marsha Jones.