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The Queen during a visit to Coventry which took in a tour of Walsgrave Hospital

The Queen during a visit to Coventry which took in a tour of Walsgrave Hospital (pictured here) where she officially opened the newly finished building. She chatted to nurses and patients and in her speech she said that Coventry had particular cause to take pride in the new hospital. "Today's ceremony marks another stage in the re-creation of your city after the destruction of the last war. "This long task at which so many people have worked so patiently over the years is one whih which I have been very happy to be associated with in the past. "A great deal of original thinking has gone into the planning and building of this hospital - more can be done to cure and care for a patient than has ever been possible in the past. "However good its buildings and equipment must depend on the quality of its staff. Their work is more demanding than it has ever been. "Those of you who have been patients will remember the spirit of dedication which is the driving force among doctors and nurses and those who work with them." After the ceremony the Queen received a bouquet from 21-year-old student nurse Helen Ogilvie, Coventry-born, who has been at the hospital since it opened. The Queen was presented with a silver paperknife in a special casket as a memento of the occassion. As she was closing the lid of the casket she seemed to trap her fingers and said: "It would be fine if I lost the tip of my finger and had to stay here as a patient." At the maternity hospital she spoke to Dr. A. Burzaco and congratulated him on the recent successful delivery of siamese twins.
30th June 1970

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