Southampton General Hospital

Infobox Hospital
Name = Southampton General Hospital
Org/Group = Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust

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Caption = The front of Southampton General Hospital, showing from left to right the North Wing, Centre Block, and West Wing

Location = Southampton
Region = Hampshire
State = England
Country = UK
HealthCare = NHS
Type = District General
Emergency = Yes
Affiliation= University of Southampton
Beds = 1100
Speciality = (Not applicable)
Founded = 1900
Closed =
Website = http://www.suht.nhs.uk/ Trust
Wiki-Links = |

Southampton General Hospital is a large District General Hospital (DGH) in Southampton, England, operated by the Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust. The hospital was the location for the daytime TV fly-on-the-wall documentary series, "The General".

History

The hospital began life as the Shirley Warren Poor Law Infirmary in 1900, when the Royal South Hampshire Hospital was running out of capacity to treat the growing city. The initial 35 acre site cost the Poor Law Guardians £8,200, and the foundation stone was laid on 31st March 1900. The original building, housing 289 beds, cost £64,800 to construct. It has since been demolished.

Southampton Borough Council took responsibility for the hospital in 1929, expanding the number of beds to 431. At this stage, the hospital became known as the Borough Hospital. When the National Health Service came into being in 1948, the hospital took its present name.

The Wessex Neurological Unit opened on the site in 1965, and the East Wing was constructed in 1974, providing 450 additional beds, a new Accident and Emergency Department, and a children's unit. Three years later, the Centre Block was built, which still provides the main entrance to the hospital. The 7-level Centre Block cost over £9 million to construct.

In 1983, the £10 million West Wing was constructed, adding 472 beds to the hospital. This was followed a year later by installation of the Wessex Body Scanner at a cost of £1.5 million.

In 2005, a new cardiac centre was opened, having cost around £53 million to build. In addition to these buildings, the University of Southampton has a number of buildings on the site, which are used both for teaching and research. In particular, the hospital has a widespread reputation for cancer research and asthma research.

A new Accident and Emergency Department is also under construction.

The Steve Mills Stem Cell Laboratory

In September 2006 the Steve Mills Stem Cell Laboratory, which had been established by a charity created by the late Southampton F.C. footballer, Steve Mills, moved from the Royal South Hants Hospital to a new location at Southampton General Hospital, and was officially opened on 27 September 2006 by Steve’s widow Jo and former Southampton footballer and manager, Alan Ball.

* The Steve Mills Stem Cell Laboratory processes, stores and issues stem cell products for transplant.
* The processing of a patient’s stem cell products takes around 3 hours to complete.
* Stem cell donations are processed as soon as they arrive at the laboratory because stem cells have a shelf life of just 24 hours.
* The laboratory reacts quickly to hospital requests and processes up to 12 stem cell donations a week.
* The laboratory processes stem cells for Southampton University Hospitals Trust, Bournemouth Hospital, Poole Hospital, Salisbury District Hospital and Dorset County Hospital.
* In addition to processing, storing and issuing stem cell products, the laboratory undertakes critical research and development of new cancer therapies and treatments.

Teaching Hospital

* Southampton General Hospital is a teaching hospital associated with the University of Southampton
* The hospital is home to not only the medical students but also PhD students and research academics and clinicians. Originally based in the South Academic Block this has been expanded to include several other buildings including the newly opened Somers Building.
* There are 6 different departments of research at Southampton General Hospital
* * IIR (Infection, Inflammation and Repair)
* * Cancer Sciences
* * Clinical Neurosciences
* * DoHAD (Developmental Origins of Health and Disease)
* * Human Genetics
* * Community Clinical Sciences

References

* Brown, Jim. "The Illustrated History of Southampton's Suburbs". Breedon. ISBN 1-85983-405-1. [http://www.som.soton.ac.uk/research/default.htm Southampton University School of Medicine]

External links

* [http://www.hants.gov.uk/hba/ Southampton Hospital Broadcasting Association]
* [http://www.som.soton.ac.uk/ School of Medicine]