History

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1920s

26th March 1924

Application made to the Ministry of Health to purchase site of proposed hospital at Davyhulme for £10,000.

8th October 1924

Various designs of the proposed hospital were displayed for 7 days. The design of Messrs Elcock and Sutcliffe were forwarded to the Ministry of Health.

20th January 1926

The first sod is cut by Mr James Belshaw, Chairman of the Building Committee of the Barton Upon Irwell Guardians.

2nd July 1926

The Earl of Derby and Sir Thomas Robinson lay the first foundation stone of Park Hospital.

17th December 1928

The first patients to Park Hospital are admitted. Only the patients expected to survive were transferred from the Green Lane Institution. Those in a more serious condition remained at Patricroft.

1st June 1929

Park Hospital is officially opened by HRH Princess Mary Viscountess Lascelles and a souvenir of the day was published.
 

1930s

5th May 1934

The Guardian newspaper publishes the Medical Superintendent’s (Dr Davidson) annual report. For year ending 1933:

• Admissions 5574
• Operations 2625
• Physiotherapy treatments 8102
• Pathology investigations 4451
• Radiology investigations 378
• Blood transfusions 44

Medical staff:

•  Medical superintendent
•  4 resident staff
•  7 visiting specialists

September 1939

After the declaration of war, Park Hospital becomes a British Military Hospital. The government’s war department take management of the hospital, known as Fifth Western General.
 

1940s

1939 - 1946

Later in 1939 Abbotsfield Hospital was opened in a large house in Flixton to deal with civilian patients during the war. It had 50 beds by the end of the war and was seeing an average of 10,000 outpatients each year.

1940

The first casualties arrived early this year following the German invasion of Norway. As well as British troops, casualties included French Soldiers (mainly from the French Foreign Legion) and German Prisoners of War.

8th November 1943

The hospital is transferred to the US Army and became known as the 10th Station Hospital. British civilians under contract to Lancashire County Council continued to provide services such as laundry and building maintenance.

11th July 1945

The hospital is officially handed back to the British Army North West District.

January - February 1946

The opening of more medical wards allowed maternity patients to be admitted to Park Hospital.

5th July 1948

First day of the NHS
Aneurin Bevan, Minister of Health, visits Park Hospital to inaugurate the NHS by symbolically receiving its keys. The first ever NHS patient, 13-year-old Sylvia Diggory (nee Beckingham) was the youngest person on Ward 5 at Park Hospital. An outbreak of measles on the children's ward meant that she had to be accommodated with adults in a veranda close to the hospital main entrance.

From her corner bed, she watched nurses form a 'guard of honour' when Nye Bevan arrived. Speaking many years later Sylvia recalled: "Aneurin Bevan asked me if I understood the significance of the occasion and told me that it was a milestone in history - the most civilised step any country had ever taken, and a day I would remember for the rest of my life - and of course, he was right."
 

1950s

1951

Miss Anne Dolan retires as Matron. Miss Dolan began working at Park Hospital when it opened in 1929 and remained here until the US Army took over the hospital in 1943. During this time she received the Royal Red Cross decoration for the handling of the wounded from Dunkirk and Narvik. While Park was a US hospital Miss Dolan worked in a hospital in Scotland returning to Davyhulme in 1946. She was awarded a bar to her Royal Red Cross, an honour rarely given.
 

1960s

1970s

1974

NHS Reorganisation
As a result of the government’s NHS reorganisation, Park Hospital became the main hospital run by the newly created Trafford Health Authority. Park Hospital’s area of responsibility shifted southwards, including the following hospitals:

• Altrincham General (73 beds, acute)
• Park Hospital (370 beds, acute)
• Sale & Brooklands (29 beds, acute)
• Stretford Memorial (51 beds, acute)
• Altrincham Maternity (22 beds, GP Maternity)
• Southfield (20 beds, GP Maternity)
• Urmston Cottage (16 beds, GP Maternity)
• St Annes (51 beds, ENT/Mixed)
• Denzell (30 beds, Pre-convalescent)
• Ashton-on-Mersey (19 beds, Elderly)
• Bridgewater (153 beds, Elderly/Mentally Ill)

1975 - 79

Park Hospital continued to expand and new developments included; a new Postgraduate Medical Centre, Outpatients department, Accident and Emergency, X Ray, Orthopaedic theatres, Obstetrics and gynaecology department and Medical Records department. It was in 1979 that Park Hospital celebrated 50 years since its opening.

1980s

1981 - 86

Building work on a new £3.5million Elderly Unit and Rehabilitation Unit began in June 1983. It was to have 96 beds and included a day hospital. Baroness Trumpington officially opened the new Elderly Unit in February 1986.
Later that year the physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy departments were opened.
Other new developments included surgical theatres, a lecture theatre to the nurse training school and a new intensive care unit and pharmacy.
 

5th July 1988

40th anniversary of NHS
On the 40th anniversary of the NHS, Park Hospital was renamed Trafford General Hospital. Mrs Sylvia Diggory, the first patient treated by the NHS, unveiled a plaque commemorating the event. Another visitor was Sandra Walker (nee Pook) who was the first baby born under the NHS at Park Hospital.
 

1990s

1991 – 94

In the early 1990’s a new £2.5million mental health unit, known as Moorside, was opened with 66 inpatient beds. This allowed the old Bridgewater Hospital to be closed as patients and staff were transferred to this new modern unit. A larger 34 bed maternity unit was also unveiled including a special care baby unit. HRH Duchess of Kent formally opened both units.

April 1994

Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust was established in 1994 and continued to operate services at Trafford General, Altrincham General and Stretford Memorial hospitals. The new NHS Trusts aimed to increase focus on services within the community.

1994 - 97

New developments at the Trust included the redevelopment of wards 1-6 for the elderly health department and acute medicine. Known as the Seymour Unit, it was opened by HRH Duchess of Gloucester, and saw patients transferred from Stretford Memorial Hospital. Other new developments included:

• Margaret Rodgers Mammography Suite
• New CT Scanning Department
• Medical Investigation Unit
• Endoscopy Unit
• Chemotherapy Unit
• Pathology Laboratory
• Gynaecology ward
• Education Centre

1998

In July 1998 on the 50th anniversary of the NHS, Frank Dobson, Secretary of State for Health visited the Trust with Silvia Diggory to commemorate the anniversary.
 

2000s

2005

A world class CT Scanner available 24 hours a day was installed in 2005. The scanner is a special kind of x-ray machine that produces a cross-section image of any part of the body. The procedure is completely painless and the pictures produced provide doctors with information to help them reach a diagnosis about a variety of conditions.

November 2005

On the 7 November 2005, the newly self-contained Minor Operations Day Unit was opened to treat patients for minor operations and pain relieving infections. All patients walk in and go home from the unit on the same day.

July 2005

Another new development in 2005 put the Trust at the forefront of blood tracking technology in the NHS, boosting patient safety. The system works to track blood from donor to recipient, reducing the number of errors. Nurses scan the patient’s blood bag and check that it is correct. New hospital name bands, which include a barcode, were introduced for all patients and used with the BloodTrack system.

May 2008

Altrincham General Hospital's Minor Injuries Unit was officially reopened by Altrincham & Sale West MP Graham Brady. Refurbishment of the unit, which provides treatment for a wide range of minor ailments and injuries and is open seven days a week, had begun in late 2007.

4th July 2008

60th anniversary of NHS
Sixty years after Nye Bevan officially launched the NHS by accepting the keys to Trafford General Hospital (then Park Hospital), nurses and others who were there on the day came together to celebrate its 60th birthday. People who were patients there on 5 July 1948, babies born there in 1948, and former staff and patients joined them at a celebratory lunch.

Stretford and Urmston MP Beverley Hughes, and Fay Selvan, Chair of Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust, also attended the lunch, which had a Forties theme. Nurses commemorated the day by dressing in 1948-style uniforms and Granada news presented their evening bulletin from Trafford General.

31 October 2008

A dedicated centre for diabetes care was opened at Trafford General Hospital after a fundraising campaign raising £500,000 for its construction. The development was timely because diabetes, particularly Type 2 diabetes, was on the increase. The Diabetes Centre helps people manage their condition by providing expert medical and nursing care, nutritional advice, patient education sessions, retinal screening to check for eye damage, and podiatry services all under one roof.