Tunbridge Wells Hospital

Tunbridge Wells Hospital
Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust
Geography
Location Pembury, Kent, England, United Kingdom
Coordinates 51°08′56″N 0°18′29″E / 51.1488°N 0.3081°ECoordinates: 51°08′56″N 0°18′29″E / 51.1488°N 0.3081°E
Organisation
Care system National Health Service
Funding Public hospital
Hospital type District General
Services
Emergency department Yes Accident & Emergency
Beds 512
History
Founded 2010
Links
Website http://www.mtw.nhs.uk/
Lists Hospitals in England

Tunbridge Wells Hospital is a large district general hospital near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, run by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust. The hospital is located north-west of the village of Pembury on Tonbridge Road.

The hospital was built by Laing O'Rourke on the site of Pembury Hospital at a cost of £226 million. Building work started in 2008.[1] The first phase of the new hospital opened in January 2011, the rest of the hospital opened on 21 September 2011, all services were transferred from the Kent and Sussex Hospital. The new hospital has been denied a "Royal" prefix.[2]

The new hospital is the first acute NHS hospital in Britain where every inpatient has their own room with en-suite facilities, with ceiling to floor windows revealing views over surrounding woodland. The maternity unit will see nearly 100 babies born every week and the A&E department will treat 50,000 patients every year.[1]

Location

The hospital is located on Tonbridge Road, around 0.5 kilometres (0.31 mi) to the north-west of Pembury, close to the A21 trunk road. It is surrounded by woodland on three sides.

History

See Pembury Hospital.

The hospital was built on the site of what was originally a workhouse, opened in 1836. the site became a hospital in 1938, and was demolished to make way for the new Tunbridge Wells Hospital in 2010.

New Hospital

The new hospital has replaced both the Pembury County Hospital and the Kent and Sussex Hospital. It has 512 beds and provides a full range of clinical services including an Accident and Emergency department. The first department to transfer to the new hospital was the maternity department, with the first baby being born in the new unit in January 2011.[3]

The new hospital has been named Tunbridge Wells Hospital. There is considerable local resistance to this name change, as the new hospital is not in Tunbridge Wells.

See also

References