 At the beginning of the 1980s, Wordsley Hospital was chosen as the site of a new maternity unit to serve the whole Dudley borough and replacing the existing maternity wards at Wordsley as well as Burton Road Hospital in Dudley and Mary Stevens Maternity Home in Stourbridge.Construction work on the new 118-bed maternity unit began during 1985.The maternity unit was officially opened by the Duchess of Gloucester on 24 November 1988.