Worthing Hospital

Description

About Worthing Hospital
Worthing Hospital has more than 500 beds and provides a full range of general acute services including maternity outpatients AampE and intensive care

The hospital primarily serves people living in Worthing ShorehambySea and also towns and villages along the coast and in the inland areas of west Sussex

However it also offers more specialist services such as the eye unit and West Sussex breast screening to more than 600000 people in a wider catchment area stretching from Chichester in the west to Brighton in the east

History

History
Worthings first hospital was a dispensary in Ann Street created in 1829 A new dispensary was set up in 1845 in Chapel Road which was enlarged in 1860 to become known as the Worthing Infirmary and Dispensary

In 1882 the infirmary moved to the hospitals current location in Lyndhurst Road at a cost of pound5000 In 1902 it was given the name Worthing Hospital

Xray technology came to Worthing during the interwar years a development described by the local paper as quotthe staggering amount of 200000 volts of electricity being generated by a giant apparatus the very latest result of scientific researchquot

In 1939 the Princess Royal opened a new childrens ward and in 1946 there were record numbers of births at the hospital 578 boys and 553 girls

The first helicopter ambulance landed in Homefield Park in 1960 to transfer a cyclist with spinal injuries to Stoke Mandeville Hospital

A pound50 million development programme was carried out in 1997 and 1998 culminating in the opening of the new East Wing It used a million bricks and 150000 tonnes of concrete and was officially opened by the Princess Royal The interior design is colourcoded terracotta to represent the earth on the ground floor green for the Downs on the first floor and blue the sky on the second and third floors

Important developments in patient care were also made in 1998 when the renal dialysis unit opened meaning patients with kidney failure no longer had to travel to Portsmouth or Brighton for dialysis up to three times a week The new diabetes centre also opened bringing all diabetic care into one place and three years later the pound13 million Childrens Centre also opened its doors

In 2004 surgeons pioneered keyhole operating techniques for the treatment of stomach cancers and the AampE department was rated one of the best in the country earning a pound100000 government award to fund further developments in emergency care In the same year the pound2 million catheter laboratory opened to improve the cardiac service offered to patients requiring angiograms

In 2006 the gynaecology unit received international recognition for its surgical expertise and the following year the new MRI scanner completed the Trusts pound13 million programme of investment in stateoftheart scanning equipment

The hospital was awarded CHKS Top 40 Hospital status in 2008 and opened a refurbished coronary care unit