CHILDREN’S authors Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen helped to open officially an £18.75million extension to Colchester General Hospital.

They unveiled a plaque they designed for the children’s unit, which occupies the ground floor of the development.

Their plaque includes images of some of their most popular characters – Mr Butterworth’s Percy the Park Keeper and Q Pootle 5 and Mr Inkpen’s Kipper and Wibbly Pig.

Lord Ribeiro, a pioneer of keyhole surgery and president of the Royal College of Surgeons from 2005 to 2008, unveiled a plaque upstairs to open a surgical ward and elective care centre.

Sally Irvine, chairman of Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust, said the two-storey development was the biggest investment at Colchester General Hospital since it opened in 1985.

She added: “This is a landmark development for us and has been welcomed enthusiastically by patients, visitors and staff since it opened its doors to patients for the first time at the end of 2010.

“It provides a spacious, modern environment for patients and the space it has freed up paves the way for future developments.”

The children’s unit includes a ward; an acute referral unit where urgent patients are referred, often by their GP, for assessment and sometimes treatment; and an outpatients’ department, part of which had previously been provided in a small temporary building.

Mersea Ward on the first floor is for non-emergency surgical patients and has 16 single en-suite rooms and four bays each containing four beds.

The elective care centre is for patients who come into hospital for pre-admission checks before the date of their in-patient operation.

Mr Butterworth and Mr Inkpen, who have sold millions of books worldwide, both live near Colchester.

Lord Ribeiro retired in 2008 after 29 years as a consultant surgeon at Basildon Hospital.