Cottage Hospitals

I heard on the Today programme that it isn't cottage hospitals they want to bring back, but "smaller units". A rose by any other name...

Another complete turnaround though.

Will it actually happen? I have my doubts.

When I was small I thought a cottage hospital would look like a thatched cottage. I couldn't understand why people wouldn't rather go to a real hospital.

I spent many a year working in a cottage hospital. Wonderful. 'Matron' wore a hat made of starch, and we knew the names (and families) of all the patients. Ah, happy memories.

He started his career at Shotley Bridge, a community hospital. When he went back there after taking over NHS England and gave his first speech from there, I thought it might be the deathknell of Shotley Bridge. Pleased I was wrong - or as Tanith says, hope I was wrong.

At Shotley Bridge, the car parking is free, and there are always spaces.
Hope that carries on, too.

At last some common sense! I've been banging on for years about how ridiculous and shortsighted it was to close the local cottage hospitals. Let's just hope that they really will be re-introduced and those that still exist will be properly funded.

I wonder how the cottage hospitals will be increased? We had several near by but they were bulldozed or converted, so now we need new ones.

MiniMouse me too! The majority of people visiting hospital or admitted to one are there for relatively simple mundane reasons. They do not need to be seen at large state of the art hospitals with specialist centres for those with serious or critical illnesses

When DH was seriously injured in a road accident she was rushed to a specialist unit in a big hospital where the treatment she received her saved her right arm. That is as it should be. Two weeks ago DGS was seen by a consultant paediatrician at a very new community hospital, it was clean, friendly, and there were plenty of places to sit in the single atrium waiting area. The café too was pleasant.

DGS was seen by the same paediatrician who would have seen him if he and his mother had travelled 20 miles by train and bus to the nearest major hospital. The specialist was able to do all the examinations and tests necessary at this smaller hospital and make treatment arrangements but also spoke of a possible later referral to a specialist children's hospital 40 miles away if he doesn't respond to treatment. That also is as it should be.

We have cottage hospital and even though the A&E facility has been removed, they still offer a Minor Injuries Unit from 8am to 8pm which is a boon. When people no longer need the specialist care at our main hospital but are considered not well enough to actually go home, they can be transferred to the cottage hospital if it is closer to where they live making it easier for family and friends to visit and they are cared for by the nurses and local GPs.

Our local cottage hospital had a purpose built maternity unit that was only about 20 yrs old. They closed that the year before DD was born meaning I had to travel 30 miles to the nearest larger hospital for delivery. This is also our nearest out of hours A&E.
Then they shut down the whole site about 10 yrs ago and built a housing estate and built a new hospital a 5min drive away the mind boggles at the waste of money.

Sigh - everyone except the NHS managers knew that this was the right thing to do, but was anyone listening? I don't think so. Not sure how they can turn it all back around now that so many of the buildings have been sold off.

We have a cottage hospital right next door to our huge, wonderful medical centre. You can choose to have x rays at the hospital, and first meetings with consultants, regular physio appointments, out of hours treatments and minor injuries dealt with, together with podiatry etc. At the medical centre you can have blood tests and other routine tests.

We thought we were well catered for in Medway, but I am SO impressed with what is on our doorstep here. I could walk there, before the recent knee replacement, and hope to do so again. (Not today, though!)

We are so lucky.

Ariadne Medway Maritime is our nearest A&E.

We have a small local hospital which is continually threatened with closure. The maternity unit (where DGS1 was born) has been closed for several years now. Our MP, who is a doctor, is no help because he doesn't approve of midwife led maternity units. His ambition is to build an enormous ego trip hospital miles away!
I have had both knees replaced and varicose veins operated on at our local hospital and the treatment has been first class. They still have an x ray department and an out of hours centre, and DH is able to have monthly check ups with his cancer consultant. It may be old and shabby but it always seems to score higher than the big new hospitals when it comes to patient satisfaction.

Reading the threads just made we wonder how, if cottage hospitals were reintroduced, they would be staffed.

I remember having my tonsils out in the local cottage hospital - long gone - with a sister in her triangular head gear and the nurses scurrying about. I also remember the jelly and screaming blue murder when my parents had to go home after visiting time. They left me with a musical box that only played the Carnival of Venice (?) and i turned that handle ad nauseam and drove everyone mad. I must have been 6.

Let us be very clear. he is talking about local hospitals that take care of elderly sick, and people recovering from strokes etc.
Not about acute services - A and E, cancer services, heart surgery, special care baby unites, intensive care etc. These can only be provided effectively and to the standards expected today in large centralised units.

Yes, I agree that the term 'cottage hospitals' in this instance is possibly misleading. Does the new NHS chief really know what they once meant to communities, or is it just some sort of woolly soundbitey thing?

Back in the day we had a military hospital (RAF) just outside Ely which also served the local community. When it closed there was a successful campaign to re-open it as a unit that dealt with minor injuries and other services that would benefit the community. There are numerous clinics, physio, a stroke re-hab ward and many other facilities.

We are lucky to have it nearby but are under no illusions that more serious conditions would have to be dealt with at our large centralized unit which is Addenbrookes in Cambridge.

The new NHS chief knows what he is talking about as he started his medical career in our local cottage hospital, and gave his first speech from the same hospital when he started his new appointment.

We have a cottage hospital 500m from our Scottish home. A few years ago the whole community managed to save it from extinction. A wonderful place that it really is part of the community, where all the staff are known and a comfort to the patients.

A couple of years ago DH tripped in the night and cut his for head - lots of blood! We went down, rang the door bell, the nurse cleaned it up, the doctor arrived, stitched and we went back home. We were also given an exact time to attend for the stitches to be removed. Wonderful, if only all the NHS worked like this!
Save all cottage hospitals! X

New local hospitals do exist. I drove past one in Porthmadog last week. Problem with using GPs in local hospitals is that they are much more busy than they used to be. Demand for appointments has rocketed. I don't think they really know why. Years ago there was a tiny demand for appointments in comparison which left GPs free to attend home births, do lots of house calls, do other jobs like prison doctor, or exams for insurance companies.

We have a 'memorial' Hospital, which is open during the day,for minor injuries and has several wards, some of which are going to close through lack of nurses - vacancies have been advertised almost since Christmas. The out-patients, and other departments at this little hospital is superb, but I have never understood why these are closed at the weekends, when so much social activity is going on and minor accidents - which is what the hospital mainly caters for - will happen more often. There used to be a lovely little restaurant within the hospital, which was very popular, but this closed. There is however a very nice FREE car park, and I hope we keep this little treasure whose staff is excellent

nina I had all my breast cancer treatment at Medway Maritime, (chemo at Maidstone on those days) and the whole thing was dealt with quickly and compassionately. I was impressed by it, but realise now that our GP practice was overloaded and not very efficient in comparison to what I now have. Just not having to travel far, or experience queues for routine procedures is a gift!