Frimley Park Hospital

Frimley Park Hospital was formerly run by Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust which took over Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in October 2014. It is a large, 720-bed NHS hospital in Frimley, Surrey. It is now part of Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust.

It opened in 1974 [1] to provide a full range of district general hospital services for North East Hampshire and West Surrey, a catchment population of about 365,000. The catchment area includes Frimley, Camberley, Bagshot, Crowthorne, Sandhurst, Yateley, Fleet, Farnborough, Aldershot and Farnham.

The Hospital was one of five selected in 1995 by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to host a Ministry of Defence Hospital Unit, and this was established in February 1996. Military staff are integrated into the hospital workforce and treat both military and civilian patients.

The hospital consists of many departments including an accident and emergency department (A&E) a Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) and multiple operating theatres.

Dr. Farouk Massouh, a general surgeon at Frimley Park Hospital, developed a popular clinical sign for diagnosing acute localised appendicitis. This test, which is popular through southwest England, is called the Massouh sign.

It was the birthplace of the two children of the Earl and Countess of Wessex, Lady Louise Windsor and Viscount Severn, and Rugby Union World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson. The actor Derrick De Marney died at the hospital in 1978, as did actor and comedian Arthur English in 1995.

Frimley Park also has links with Farnborough Sixth Form College with several of its students working as porters and healthcare assistants, and gaining work experience placements there in accordance with the aims of the Farnborough Sixth Medical Society (FSMS) in order to assist with their medical applications. In May 2009 Frimley Park also ran an event, "Taste of Frimley Park" in order to give students a better idea of what working in the hospital would be like.

In 2015 Frimley Park hit controversy when it emerged it was charging patients £2,552 for cataract surgery, treble the true cost for the treatment, which is available for free on the NHS.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Hospitals". Surrey Heath Borough Council. Retrieved 30 December 2011.
  2. ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3032835/Jump-queue-cataract-operations-paying-Half-hospitals-allow-patients-contribute-ll-pay-THREE-times-odds.html