Southport General Infirmary

Southport General Infirmary
Christiana Hartley Maternity Hospital
Southport General Infirmary, circa 1960's
Geography
Location	Southport, Merseyside, England, United Kingdom
Organisation
Care system	Was private then NHS
Hospital type	General Hospital
Affiliated university	Edge Hill College
Services
Emergency department	Until 1988
Beds	205+
History
Founded	1895
Closed	1999
Links
Lists	Hospitals in England

Southport General Infirmary was a Victorian hospital that was Southport's first major hospital. The first construction of the building started in October 1892, with the first patients being seen at the hospital in September 1895.

History

Southport Infirmary was the first hospital in Southport, it was constructed on Virginia Street in 1870 and opened in 1871 to accommodate six male patients and six female patients. It also had two sidewards by where patients with infectious diseases were isolated. The hospital proved so popular that a new site was sought for the construction of a new and bigger hospital.^[1]

New Infirmary Construction

The Scarisbrick family who resided at Scarisbrick Hall gave a five-acre site on which the Infirmary once stood. The foundation stone was laid on 27 October 1892 and the hospital opened on 26 September 1895. The buildings were erected at a total cost of £25,000 this then provided accommodation for 60 patients in the men’s, women’s and children’s wards.^[2]

World War I

Queen Elizabeth Children's Ward, taken 1946

In 1899, following expansion of the local area it served to include Ainsdale, the Infirmary merged with The Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital. The three years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War saw the growth of the hospital building with a new ward and the opening of a new Massage Department and X-ray Department. During World War I, a further 120 beds for wounded soldiers where needed and saw the construction of yet another ward, a new Anaesthetic Room and Pathology Department in 1916. The services were stretched during the war as by 1918 a total of 1,173 wounded and invalided British soldiers had been seen at the hospital. After the First World War an Artificial Sunlight Department was added to the facilities as well as further accommodation for the staff and the construction of more wards and minor improvements to the hospital services as the town grew.

World War II

In June 1939 construction began on a new Women’s Surgical Ward followed by the outbreak of war in the September. The hospital therefore built an extra 117 emergency beds to add to the 150 general beds the hospital already had. In 1943 the hospital services were becoming stretched due to the demand of health care, this was when the Appointments System for outpatients was introduced, this provided follow-up clinics for the 173 wounded soldiers which were admitted during the year. In 1944 a new Rehabilitation Department was opened to help the injured soldiers from the war. In the Infirmary’s silver jubilee year, plans were made for an additional 178 beds.^[3]

Christiana Hartley Maternity Hospital

In 1928 Christiana Hartley, the daughter of Sir William Pickles Hartley the founder of Hartley's Jam, proposed to construct a Maternity Hospital for the town. The plans were accepted and the Maternity Hospital opened in May 1932 on the Curzon Road side of the site. The Maternity services where independently managed, although the Infirmary provided the nursing, food, medicine, laundry and other requirements. The Christiana Hartley maternity unit remained on the Infirmary site until it was moved over to the new District General Hospital in 1999.

The National Health Service

On 5 July 1948, the National Health Service took over the ownership and management of the Infirmary. It was one of 14 hospitals under Liverpool Regional Hospital Board.

During the 1950s and 1960s the hospital dramatically continued to improve and expand its facilities. This included the provision of emergency lighting, a staff canteen and improvements to staff accommodation. Also a new Pharmacy, which allowed the overrun Outpatient and Casualty Department to be separated into two distinct departments. In 1963 saw the improvements and extensions to the theatre facilities and a new mortuary refrigeration unit was built. While in 1966 an automatic film processing unit was added to the X-ray Department.

Growth and Popularity

The first half of the 1960s saw a thirty per cent increase in surgical work at the Infirmary and an increase of 20 per cent in all services at the hospital. In 1966 the total of beds the hospital offered was 104 and rising to 205 beds by 1978.^[4]

During the late 1970s the facilities at the Infirmary were stretched again as the ever increasing population continued to grow in the local area. It was identified by the health board that a new hospital was needed to provide sufficient facilities for the increasing demands. Plans were put in place for the building of the Southport & Formby District General Hospital (SDGH) on the former Kew Gardens site on Town Lane.

The General Hospital

The new General Hospital was opened in 1988 by Princess Diana and the vast majority of services moved from the Scarisbrick Road Infirmary. Some of the less acute services remained at the Infirmary with the main entrance now on Pilkington Road, these included the Eye Unit, ENT, Audiology, Chiropody, Speech Therapy, Paton Ward for the elderly and some pathology services.

The Spinal Injuries Unit temporarily moved to the Infirmary from the Promenade Hospital in 1988 while the construction of a major extension to the back of the General Hospital was carried out. Finally in 1990 the Spinal Injuries Unit moved to the General Hospital. During 1999, the Christiana Hartley maternity unit and the other services provided on the infirmary site where split up and slowly moved to new accommodation at the Southport & Formby District General Hospital and Ormskirk & District General Hospital.^[5]

Since the move of the General Hospital services on the Scarisbrick New Road site, Mental Health Services remain under the management of Mersey Care NHS Trust in one wing of the former Victorian Infirmary.

Demolition

The site on 26 December 2009

The Infirmary Victorian Building was demolished in 2008 with the front right wing left due to the Mental Health Services still currently using the building. In 2009 the remainder of the hospital buildings including the Pilkington Road Eye Unit, the staff accommodation block also on Pilkington Road, the unusual round Victorian children's ward, the Christiana Hartley Maternity Unit on Curzon Road and the maintenance buildings including the staff canteen were all demolished.

Future plans

Nurses Accommodation Derelict in 2009 on Pilkington Road

Before demolition plans were made to create a health village by where a pharmacy, multiple GP's surgeries and other health care related facilities including community services would be based at a new complex built on the site. This, however, fell through and a new smaller health and well being centre was built on Houghton Street in the town centre instead. The now flattened Infirmary site was redeveloped into new housing. In 2011 construction began on the new housing development "Hartley Grange", the designs of the new construction keeping in style to the surrounding areas.

References