Bedford Hospital

Bedford Hospital is a District General Hospital located in the English town of Bedford, serving north and mid Bedfordshire. It is run by Bedford Hospital NHS Trust.

Main site (South Wing)

Bedford Hospital is mainly situated on Britannia Road/Ampthill Road in the Cauldwell area of Bedford. This site (which used to be known as South Wing) is home to the Accident and Emergency department, theatres, pathology, inpatient wards, x-ray department, oncology services and the outpatients services. The main site houses [http://www.bedoc.co.uk/ BEDOC] , Bedford Primary Care Trust's GP out-of-hours emergency service.

Recent developments on the main site include:
* Cygnet Wing (1996), a paediatric, maternity and gynaecology building
* A new 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 gynaecological or breast surgery
* Shand - 34 beds, mixed surgical ward, specialising in vascular surgery
* Shuttleworth - 33 beds, mixed surgical, specialises in colorectal and gastrointestinal surgery
* Victoria - 16 beds, for stroke patients.

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

Weller Wing, the main 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 [ [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1482654.stm BBC News - Bodies scandal 'was a set-up'] ] .

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

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1147266.stm "Hospital chapel used as mortuary for years"] . "BBC News online". January 31, 2001.

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]