Bedford Hospital

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This article relates to Bedford Hospital in England. For Bedford Hospital in South Africa, please see Bedford Provincial Hospital (Eastern Cape).

Bedford Hospital
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust

Bedford Hospital's Britannia Road entrance
Geography
Location Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates 52°07′44″N 0°28′18″W / 52.128857°N 0.471743°W / 52.128857; -0.471743Coordinates: 52°07′44″N 0°28′18″W / 52.128857°N 0.471743°W / 52.128857; -0.471743
Organisation
Care system Public NHS
Funding Public hospital
Hospital type General
Services
Emergency department Yes Accident & Emergency
History
Founded 1897 (1803)
Links
Website www.bedfordhospital.nhs.uk
Lists Hospitals in the United Kingdom

Bedford Hospital NHS Trust is a 400-bed district general hospital located in the English town of Bedford, serving north and mid Bedfordshire.

The hospital provides services to 270,000 people living in north and mid Bedfordshire. It has been one of the top 40 hospitals in the UK, as recognised by CHKS Ltd, for the last ten years (2003–present). Only six other hospitals have been named in the top 40 for each of these years.

In 2012 the hospital performed 37,245 operations, and had 279,188 outpatient attendances by 68,168 patients.

In December 2013 is was announced that Monitor was reviewing of health services in Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes in an attempt to avert “significant problems ahead” in the local hospitals.[1]

Main site (South Wing)

Accident & Emergency
Gilbert Hitchcock House at the Bedford Health Village

Bedford Hospital is mainly situated on Britannia Road/Ampthill Road in the Cauldwell area of Bedford. This site (still popularly known as South Wing) is home to the Accident and Emergency department, theatres, pathology, inpatient wards, x-ray department, oncology services and the outpatients services. The main site houses BEDOC, Bedfordshire Primary Care Trust's GP out-of-hours emergency service.

The hospital has been named as being in the top 25% in the country for stroke unit performance, its work to prevent pressure ulcers and improve the care and experience of vulnerable patients was voted as the best safety project at the 2011 National Patient Safety Congress, and in 2011 it was one of the first hospitals in the country to offer access to a dedicated acute cancer team.

Developments on the main site over the last 20 years include:

  • Cygnet Wing (1996), a paediatric, maternity and gynaecology building
  • A new critical care complex (2002)
  • The Macmillian Primrose Centre (2003), an oncology centre funded entirely by charitable donations from local people
  • The laser treatment centre (1997) with 6 state of the art lasers, making Bedford hospital the regional NHS laser centre in East Anglia.
  • Beeden House (2005), which hosts cardiology including a cardiac catheterisation suite, as well as occupational therapy, urodynamics and orthotics
  • A new £7m pathology building (2006)
  • The Acorn Suite, a home-from-home midwifery-led birth unit with birthing pools and equipment (2010)
  • A purpose-built one-stop Breast And Bowel Cancer Centre, offering diagnostics, results and consultations in one place (2010)
  • A new state-of-the-art gamma camera with built-in CT scanner for the radiology department (2012)
  • The Butterfly Suite, a bereavement suite for recently bereaved parents that is away from the maternity ward (2012)

Wards at the hospital include:

  • Elizabeth - medical, 30 beds, gastroenterology and elderly patients
  • Godber - medical, 18 beds, female endocrinology and cardiology patients
  • Harpur - medical, 26 beds, acute medicine, elderly patients and palliative care
  • Howard - surgical, 28 beds, orthopaedic patients
  • Meadowbank - neonatal, 14 cots, special care baby unit (part of the Cygnet Wing)
  • Pilgrim - medical, 30 beds, endocrine or diabetic patients
  • Reginald Hart - rehabilitative, 30 beds, acute trauma patients
  • Richard Wells - medical, 27 beds, respiratory and elderly patients
  • Riverbank - paediatric, 16 beds/cots, patients aged 0–16
  • Shand - surgical, 28 beds, vascular patients
  • Shuttleworth - surgical, 32 beds, colorectal and gastrointestinal patients
  • Tavistock - surgical, 25 beds, day surgery patients
  • Victoria - rehabilitative, 16 beds, stroke patients
  • Whitbread - clinical decisions unit, 28 beds, acute medical and surgical patients

Bedford Health Village (North Wing)

Some services are based at the Bedford Health Village, two miles north of the main site. This site (which used to be known as North Wing) includes the old Bedford workhouse building. Services here include occupational therapy, physiotherapy and rehabilitation facilities, as well as a chest clinic and a drop-in dental service. Many parts of the Bedford Health Village are still under construction, with further services expected to relocate there in the coming years.[2]

Psychiatric services

Weller Wing

Weller Wing, the main psychiatric hospital serving the area, is also based on the main site, although it is run by a separate organisation, South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Foundation Trust.

Wards:

  • Keats - 24 beds, acute adult psychiatry
  • Brontë - 18 beds, acute adult psychiatry
  • Chaucer - 15 beds, old-age psychiatry
  • Milton - 15 beds, old-age psychiatry - dementia and other organic illnesses
  • Sheridan Day Hospital - 15 places per day, for over 65s

Community

Bedford Hospitals Charity was founded in 1988, initially to raise money to refurbish the Student Nurse Home South Wing.

Over the succeeding 25 years the charity has raised over £7½ million for a range of projects, including the £2.5million for the Primrose Appeal to build a new oncology unit. Other projects have included the £600,000 for gamma camera facilities, £400,000 for state-of-the-art cancer screening equipment in the endoscopy department, and £200,000 for the refurbishment of the Cygnet Wing.

The Friends Of Bedford Hospital is another charity, founded in 1902, which raises funds for additional equipment requested by staff. It holds events throughout the year, and also raises money through members’ subscriptions, donations, bequests and collections.

Recent donations include a £22,000 breast scanner, a £6,300 bladder scanner, £2,410 for a trial diet for dementia sufferers, and sharing the cost of a nipple tattoo machine for reconstructive surgery with Bedford Borough Council.

Mortuary story

The new pathology building

In 2001, it was reported in the local press that bodies were being stored on the floor of the chapel of rest, while part of the hospital's mortuary was undergoing maintenance. An internal inquiry found, that although the bodies were tampered with before the photographs were taken, the hospital's management was at fault, and the chief executive subsequently resigned.[3]

The situation is now resolved, as the new pathology building houses a larger mortuary.

References

  1. ↑ "Monitor to review services in Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes". Health Service Journal. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 2 December 2013. 
  2. ↑ http://www.bedford-pct.nhs.uk/images/bedvillage.htm
  3. ↑ BBC News - Bodies scandal 'was a set-up'

External links

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