Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is an academic teaching NHS Foundation Trust which operates hospitals in Norfolk, England. The trust was first established on 8 February 1994 as the Norfolk and Norwich Health Care NHS Trust and authorised as the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust on 1 May 2008.

In 2000 the Government announced that a joint venture bid with the University of East Anglia [1] to have a medical school and university hospital in Norwich had been successful. As a result, the trust had been established as the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital NHS Trust on 18 January 2001.

In 2009 the health watchdog, the Care Quality Commission, rated the trust's hospitals as Fair for Quality of Services and Good for Use of Resources. The trust serves a catchment population of 654,900.

Education

The trust is a joint venture partner in University of East Anglia’s School of Medicine, Health Policy and Practice, [2] including undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. A five-year MB/BS programme began in September 2002 with an intake of over 160 students a year.

There are strong links with the University of East Anglia (UEA) centred in the medical school with the appointment of Chairs in Primary Care, Education, Epidemiology, Cancer Studies. The medical school has close links with Health Economics, Clinical Psychology, Clinical Epidemiology, and the School of Biological Sciences where there is a Chair in Cancer Studies.

The trust is also home to the Norwich Radiology Academy [3] one of only three national Radiology training centres established jointly by the Department of Health and Royal College of Radiologists.

The UEA School of Nursing and Midwifery’s [4] Edith Cavell building on the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital campus opened in 2006. This provides teaching facilities for Nursing and Midwifery education.

Hospitals

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (2001 to present)

The Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) [5] opened on the Norwich Research Park [6] on the southern outskirts of Norwich in November 2001 and has 987 acute beds. NNUH is the county's main emergency centre and offers a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic services.

Known locally and affectionately as the "N&N", the hospital has a very proud history that stretches back to the original foundation of the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital in 1771 by William Fellowes and Benjamin Gooch.

The Queen [7] performed the official opening of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital on 5 February 2004. NNUH first opened to patients in November 2001, replacing the former Norfolk and Norwich Hospital, and West Norwich Hospital, and all the department moves from the two former hospitals were completed in January 2003.

Cromer Hospital (1932 to present)

Cromer Hospital is located on the North Norfolk coast and provides an important range of acute consultant and nurse-led services to the residents of North Norfolk. Services include day surgery, out-patients, an eight-station renal dialysis unit, x-ray, ultrasound and a Minor Injuries Unit (MIU) which is open seven days a week, from 8:00 am to 08:00 pm.

Plans are being developed for a new hospital on the current Mill Road hospital site in Cromer. The tender was awarded in October 2007 to Balfour Beatty subsidiary Mansell to undertake the construction project. The new hospital is due to open in 2012 and the architect is David Bissonnet of Purcell Miller Tritton [8].

The £15 million Cromer Hospital project is being funded from the very generous Sagle Bernstein and Phyllis Cox legacies [9].

Norfolk and Norwich Hospital (1771 to 2003)

The Norfolk and Norwich Hospital [10] was founded in 1771 as a charitable institution for the care of "the poor and the sick" and was established by William Fellowes and Benjamin Gooch. The old Norfolk and Norwich Hospital finally closed in 2003 after services were moved to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

An earlier driving force for the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital's establishment had been the Bishop of Norwich, Thomas Hayter. The hospital opened in the St Stephen's Road in 1772, with around 100 beds, and was designed by architect Thomas Ivory.

In late 2001 most services left the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital for the new university hospital on the Norwich Research Park with the last departments vacating the St Stephen's Road site in January 2003. The old hospital site was sold by the Department of Health to developer Persimmon Homes and the site has been redeveloped as Fellowes Plain.

External links

• Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust website
• Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment website
• University of East Anglia, Norwich website
• Care Quality Commission website
• Dr Foster Hospital Guide
• Eastern Daily Press website