Valley Children’s Hospital — the go to place in Madera for children facing life threatening medical conditions from Stockton to Bakersfield — is more than a two hour drive from Manteca, Ripon, and Lathrop.While surgeries have to be done there, follow-up care and outpatient needs could be done elsewhere.That is why the non-profit Valley Children’s Healthcare moving toward breaking ground later this year on a six-acre specialty care center campus on Pelandale Avenue in North Modesto. There is currently a small outpatient campus on McHenry Avenue in Modesto.Last year, 18,000 children from Stanislaus County alone were treated by Valley Children’s. Patients also included youngsters from Manteca and Ripon.Those patients that require follow-up care to surgery and treatments such as chemotherapy have to make round trips approaching five hours from South San Joaquin County to Madera.And because Valley Children’s won’t refuse treatment if a family is unable to pay, the hospital emergency room handles between 450 and 500 patients on any given day with roughly half needed medical attention that doesn’t require hospitalization.The openings of a larger Modesto outpatient care center will help reduce that load as well as slash travel time for patients.The Madera ER is the busiest in California among pediatric hospitals.