Belford Hospital, locally known as The Belford, is a

rural general hospital A rural general hospital is a small hospital, similar to a district general hospital, but is specifically trained and staffed to provide healthcare services in remote and rural areas. The concept was pioneered by NHS Scotland. Access to services ...

in Fort William,

Lochaber Lochaber ( ; gd, Loch Abar) is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically, it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig, as they were before being reduced in extent by the creatio ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. It is managed by

NHS Highland NHS Highland is one of the fourteen regions of NHS Scotland. Geographically, it is the largest Health Board, covering an area of from Kintyre in the south-west to Caithness in the north-east, serving a population of 320,000 people. In 2016– ...

History

The original hospital, which was financed by a legacy from Andrew Belford and designed by Henry Burrell, opened in 1865. A prefabricated hospital for fever patients was erected in the grounds in 1893 but, after it burnt down in 1900, was replaced by a more permanent structure in 1901. The main facility was extended following a donation by

Balfour Beatty Balfour Beatty plc () is an international infrastructure group based in the United Kingdom with capabilities in construction services, support services and infrastructure investments. A constituent of the FTSE 250 Index, Balfour Beatty works acr ...

in 1928. After the existing facility proved inadequate, a new hospital, which was designed by Joseph Gleave and built by Arnott Macleod, was officially opened by Princess Margaret and the

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in April 1965. When the Scottish Executive looked at reorganising rural health care in 2004 there were clear reasons put forward to retain provision of an emergency service at the Belford. Following this there were calls to work more closely with the Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban. In 2006, following the Kerr report, the Belford was designated a rural general hospital. At the end of November 2009 the surgical and medical wards were merged to form a Combined Assessment Unit (CAU).

Services

There are 34 inpatient beds and a 10-bedded day case unit. The emergency department sees around 9,000 patients a year making it one of the smallest in

; however due to its proximity to the outdoor activity centres in the Lochaber region sees proportionally a significant amount of

trauma Trauma most often refers to: * Major trauma, in physical medicine, severe physical injury caused by an external source * Psychological trauma, a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a severely distressing event *Traumatic i ...

prior to transfer to tertiary centres in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. There is also a

midwife A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery. The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...

-led service to provide maternity care. In September 2009 it achieved stage 1 of the baby-friendly accreditation programme. Although equipped to perform antenatal ultrasound scans, this service has not been offered at the Belford since June 2012, because of a national shortage of appropriately trained staff. There are also specialist in-patient services for older people.

References

External links

Belford Hospital
official webpage on NHS Highland website {{Authority control NHS Highland Hospitals in Highland (council area) Buildings and structures in Highland (council area) Fort William, Highland NHS Scotland hospitals