Bedford Hospital
5355064
207875286
2008-04-24T15:16:59Z
Bleaney
3441262
/* Main site (South Wing) */
[[Image:Bedford-Hospital-Britannia-Road.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Bedford Hospital's Britannia Road entrance]]
'''Bedford Hospital''' is a District General Hospital located in the [[England|English]] town of [[Bedford]], serving north and mid [[Bedfordshire]]. It is run by '''Bedford Hospital NHS Trust'''.
==Main site (South Wing)==
[[Image:Bedford-A&E-ambulance.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Accident & Emergency]]
[[Image:Bedford-Hospital-pathology.jpg|thumb|right|200px|The new pathology building]]
Bedford Hospital is mainly situated on Britannia Road/Ampthill Road in the [[Cauldwell, Bedfordshire|Cauldwell]] area of Bedford. This site (which used to be known as '''South Wing''') is home to the [[Emergency department|Accident and Emergency department]], [[operating theatre|theatres]], [[pathology]], inpatient wards, [[radiology|x-ray department]], [[oncology]] services and the outpatients services. The main site houses [http://www.bedoc.co.uk/ BEDOC], '''Bedford Primary Care Trust's''' [[General practitioner|GP]] out-of-hours emergency service.
Recent developments on the main site include:
* Cygnet Wing (1996), a paediatric, maternity and gynaecology building
* A new [[intensive care medicine|critical care]] complex (2002)
* The Macmillian Primrose Centre (2003), an oncology centre funded entirely by charitable donations from local people
* Beeden House (2005), which hosts a [[cardiology]] suite
* A new £7m [[pathology]] building(2006)
Wards at the hospital include:
* Gifford Nash - medical, for elderly female patients.
* [[John Bunyan]] - 16 beds, for elderly female patients.
* Meadowbank - 14 cots, special care baby unit (SCBU) at Cygnet Wing
* Pilgrim
* [[Reginald Hart]] - 14 beds female trauma and orthopaedic
* Richard Wells - medical respiratory ward
* Robertson - 16 beds, for female patients undergoing major [[gynaecology|gynaecological]] or [[breast]] surgery
* Shand - 34 beds, mixed surgical ward, specialising in [[vascular surgery]]
* Shuttleworth - 33 beds, mixed surgical, specialises in [[General surgery|colorectal and gastrointestinal surgery]]
* Victoria - 16 beds, for [[stroke]] patients.
[[Image:Bedford-Hospital-North-Wing.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Gilbert Hitchcock House at the Bedford Health Village]]
==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.
==Psychiatric services==
[[Image:Weller-Wing.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Weller Wing]]
'''Weller Wing''', the main [[psychiatry|psychiatric]] hospital serving the area, is also based on the main site, although it is run by a separate organisation, '''Bedfordshire and Luton Mental Health and Social Care Partnership NHS 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
==Mortuary scandal==
In 2001, it was reported in a local newspaper, ''[[Bedfordshire on Sunday]]'', (and later, in the national press) that bodies were being stored on the floor of the chapel of rest, as part of the hospital's mortuary was undergoing maintenance. Photographs of the bodies were printed in newspapers and shown on TV, to the outrage of some relatives of the deceased. An 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<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1482654.stm BBC News - Bodies scandal 'was a set-up']</ref>.
For several months, refrigerated trucks were used as temporary mortuaries to avoid further inappropriate storage of dead bodies. The situation is now resolved, as the new pathology building houses a larger mortuary.
==References==
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* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1147266.stm "Hospital chapel used as mortuary for years"]. ''BBC News online''. January 31, 2001.
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==External links==
* [http://www.bedfordhospital.nhs.uk/ Bedford Hospital NHS Trust website]
* [http://www.bedfordpct.nhs.uk/ Bedford Primary Care Trust]
* [http://www.blpt.nhs.uk/ Bedfordshire and Luton Mental Health and Social Care Partnership NHS Trust]
* [http://www.hospitalradiobedford.org.uk/ Hospital Radio Bedford]
[[Category:NHS hospitals]]
[[Category:Hospitals in England]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Bedfordshire]]
[[Category:Bedford]]
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