Milton Keynes General Hospital - Hospitals on Waymarking.com

The story of Milton Keynes Hospital
Milton Keynes Hospital
is a typical district general hospital offering a range of clinical services to the population of Milton Keynes and the surrounding locality. The hospital is the sole provider of Acute services for Milton Keynes. It is located to the south of the city with good vehicular access from the grid road system and is well served by the public transport system.

The hospital campus is shared with Milton Keynes Primary Care Trust, who have their headquarters on the campus and manage a health centre on the site. Inpatient psychiatric (Campbell Centre) and elderly mentally infirm (Ward 14), as well as day care and outpatient facilities and a regional secure unit - Marlborough House are run by Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust. Other facilities on the site include an ambulance station and some staff accommodation.

The increase in population of Milton Keynes, currently estimated at 225,000, has placed high demands upon the local health service in both the acute and primary care sectors. For the acute service - the hospital currently has 460 inpatient beds.
Early days

Milton Keynes Hospital occupies a 60-hectare site to the south of the centre of the city. Prior to the building of a hospital in Milton Keynes, and before the development of the city, all hospital services were provided by Stoke Mandeville Hospital and Northampton General Hospital. A satellite outpatients department at Bletchley supported the Stoke Mandeville service with Northampton and Stony Stratford providing some outpatient services.

Development of the new city started at the end of the 1960s, but by the middle of the 1970s there was still no local hospital. A campaign under the banner "Milton Keynes is Dying for a Hospital" was started, which resulted in the commitment to build a hospital on the current Eaglestone site.

Shortage of resources made it apparent that the main hospital with acute services would not be built until the early 1980s, and so a "stop-gap" community hospital was built, which opened in 1979. This consisted of four wards, including one for acute mental illness care, a rehabilitation department, a small x-ray department, and a few other supporting services, e.g. estates, catering and portering. The community hospital was built adjacent and linked to the Eaglestone Health Centre, which was the first health care building on site in 1977-78.

The start

Phase I of the hospital was the first major acute health care development in Milton Keynes, and was built on the Eaglestone site to the eastern side of the already existing ommunity hospital, which the new hospital effectively absorbed. The acute services provision included four operating theatres, an Accident & Emergency Department, Maternity Services, general and speciality wards, full diagnostic x-ray facilities, a major Pathology Department, an on-site Ambulance Station, as well as the usual supporting departments found in an acute general hospital operating on a "District" Health Authority basis. It was officially opened in September 1984 by HRH the Duchess of Kent.

Along with this major development, other projects were completed, or followed soon after - a Postgraduate Education Centre and an extended Physiotherapy Department, including a hydrotherapy pool.

Growing


The continued rapid population growth of Milton Keynes (*Estimated increase from 1984 to 1994 - 40%) soon made it clear that the hospital would have to be enlarged to meet the increasing demand. Construction of Phase II started at the beginning of 1988. The development contained six additional 28-bed wards, a further (separate) suite of four operating theatres, a considerable amount of extra accommodation for the Pathology Department, and additional accommodation for stores, staff, offices and meeting rooms. Phase II was opened in October 1992, again by HRH The Duchess of Kent

Milton Keynes General NHS Trust formally came into being on 1st April 1992. Since the advent of the Trust, significant changes to the range of services offered at the hospital have included the addition of a Renal Unit, the expansion of Postgraduate Education facilities, a new MRI scanning unit, and the expansion and re-location of the Cardiology Unit and Coronary Care Ward.

present day

The site has continued to grow. In recent years there has been a comprehensive building programme to add much needed capacity to meet the demands of a growing population. In 2002 a two-storey building housing a 26-bed orthopaedic ward and Breast Screening Unit was completed and opened.

In 2003 the Trust opened an extension to the Children's Ward to house a GP referral unit and assessment centre ward and a Patient Transfer Lounge, both of which opened in the summer of that year.

In 2004 a new office block was constructed to relieve the pressure on clinical space in the main body of the hospital and a 12- bed Oncology and Cancer Unit funded by the Macmillan Cancer Charity was completed. An enlarged clinic for the treatment of fractures was also opened in the summer.

January 2005 saw the opening of the biggest building project on the hospital site for ten years, a £12m 60-bed Treatment Centre. This has been specifically designed and built for the treatment of patients needing minor surgery, day and extended day case surgery. This has enabled the hospital to speed up treatment for patients needing this type of elective surgery.

Construction started in the spring on a £2m angiography unit to support the work of the cardiac team at the hospital. It is scheduled to open in April 2006.

In February 2006 the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister announced a £7.2m funding allocation to allow the construction of a 1000 space multi-storey car park to relieve car parking problems on the site.

This will free up space to allow further development on the site in the future.

This multi-storey car park opened for use by patients, visitors and staff on 9 July 2007.


Following the announcement by the Government in the summer of 2003 for plans to create four growth areas in the South East of England, Milton Keynes as one of those designated areas is set for rapid expansion over the next 20 years. To meet the expected increase in population the Trust is already looking ahead in co-operation with the Strategic Health Authority, the local council and regional planners to see what will be needed to meet the demands that will be placed on health care in the city in the future.

Address: Standing Way Milton Keynes, Bucks United Kingdom Mk6 5 Website: [Web Link] Rate this facility:

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