Great Western Hospital
Coordinates: 51°32′56″N 1°45′18″W / 51.549°N 1.755°W
| Great Western Hospital | |
|---|---|
| Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust | |
 | |
| Geography | |
| Location | Swindon, Wiltshire, England, United Kingdom |
| Organisation | |
| Care system | Public NHS |
| Hospital type | District General |
| Services | |
| Emergency department | Yes Accident & Emergency |
| Beds | 400 |
| History | |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Links | |
| Website | Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust |
| Lists | Hospitals in England |
Great Western Hospital is a large hospital situated in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, next to junction 15 of the M4 motorway.
Building
The architect was Whicheloe Macfarlane,[1] who designed the hospital with a concrete frame design. Flat slab concrete floors 30 cm (12 in) deep are supported by a nominal 7.2 m (23.6 ft) square grid of concrete columns. The outside of the building is covered in 7600 m2 (81,800 sq ft) of cream coloured precast concrete cladding panels which each weigh 14 tonnes and span 7 m (23 ft) x 4 m (13 ft). They attempt to replicate the appearance of Wiltshire stone.[2] There are six floors comprising a total of 55,000 m2 of floor space.[3]
The hospital was one of the first to be built under the Private Finance Initiative at a cost of £148 m,[4] with Carillion as the lead contractor.[5]
Opening
The hospital opened in 2002 to replace the services previously provided at the Princess Margaret Hospital, which had served the town since 1959. It was formally opened by HRH Prince Philip on 28 February 2003.[6]
Facilities
The facilities at the hospital include an accident and emergency department which sees approximately 50,000 patients per year, an Acute Assessment Unit, a twelve bedded intensive care / high dependency unit, an intermediate care centre on site, a health and social care education centre called the academy, and a wide range of wards and clinics, including 400 in-patient beds, serving approximately 300,000 people.
The hospital includes many inpatient medical wards, including Geriatric, Cardiology, Endocrinology, Gastrointestinal, Respiratory, Oncology/Hematology. As well as specialist facilities including an Acute Stroke Unit, Acute Cardiac Unit and an Intensive Care Unit.
The hospital also has a dedicated surgical wing, known as the Brunel Treatment Centre. Here it includes a Vascular & Urology, Orthopedic, and a ward dedicated to Gastrointestinal, ophthalmic and head and neck surgery. This wing also contains the private patients suite. The Hospital also has its own Trauma Unit based within the main hospital building.
The hospital was one of the first to use the Picture archiving and communication system film-less x-rays, as part of the NHS's National Programme for IT.[7]
Performance
In the ratings produced by the Healthcare Commission for 2005/2006 the trust scored "good" for the quality of services but "weak" for the management of resources.[8]
In 2006 it was announced that the hospital would be axing up to 200 jobs, 99 of which were likely to involve redundancy.[9]
References
- ↑ "The Great Western Hospital, Swindon". Royde & Tucker. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ↑ "The Great Western Hospital, Swindon". The Concrete Centre. Archived from the original on 2006-08-10. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ↑ "The Great Western Hospital, Swindon". ARUP facilities management. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ↑ "Then and now: A hospital's story". BBC News. 2005-07-29. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ↑ "Great Western Hospital, Swindon to axe up to 200 jobs". Labour Net. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ↑ "HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, visits Swindon". SwindonEvent.com. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ↑ "Then and now: A hospital's story". BBC News. 2005-07-29. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ↑ "Swindon and Marlborough NHS Trust". Healthcare Commission. Retrieved 2006-10-26.
- ↑ "LabourNet UK". Retrieved 2006-10-30.