Blackpool Victoria Hospital

The hospital was originally located on Whitegate Drive and was opened as the Blackpool Hospital in 1894.[1] The Manchester Guardian said that the hospital owed its existence and its extensive equipment to George Chadwick Kingsbury, a GP and the founder of Fylde Medical Society, who was the first Chair of the Hospital Management Board and also the Mayor of Blackpool in 1900.[2] It became the Blackpool Victoria Hospital by consent of Queen Victoria when it was enlarged in 1898.[3]

The foundation stone of a new building on East Park Drive was laid by the Earl of Derby on 9 June 1933.[3] The new hospital opened there in 1936 and then joined the National Health Service in 1948.[4]

The hospital has been shown in a major BBC One documentary, Blackpool Medics: 10 Days in May which featured the work of the hospital and the North West Ambulance Service. The second series was broadcast in January 2008.[5]

On 25 July 2010, a nurse named Jane Clough was stabbed to death in the hospital car park. Her ex-boyfriend Jonathan Vass, an ambulance technician, was later found guilty of her murder.[6]

On 11 September 2018, a patient tested positive for the monkeypox virus, the United Kingdom's second case.[7]

The hospital departments include Accident and Emergency, the Macmillan Cancer Suite, Maternity and Gynae, a cardiac unit and intensive care. The Lancashire Cardiac Centre is situated at the hospital; the unit provides specialist cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery services for Lancashire and Cumbria.[8]

The A&E department was already struggling to meet the four-hour target in 2019 and the COVID-19 pandemic in England led to deterioration with hundreds of 12-hour breaches each month, considerably worse than most hospitals. In 2021 it was described by the Care Quality Commission as “chaotic”, with a serious lack of awareness and oversight of safety incidents by managers. In April 2022 they issued an enforcement notice due to concerns around the management of patients with sepsis. A new ‘transfer of care’ ward opened in April, for patients waiting to be fully discharged, and a new frailty unit is to open. A new ‘same-day emergency care’ unit is also planned. [9]

• List of hospitals in England

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• Official site