The Royal Victoria Hospital, Folkestone, is a community hospital located on the edge of Radnor Park in
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
,
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
, in England. It is managed by the
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest hospital trusts in England. It runs the Kent and Canterbury Hospital (Canterbury), William Harvey Hospital (Ashford), Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital (Margate), ...
.
History
The hospital opened on Rendezvous Street in Folkestone as the ''Folkestone Dispensary'' in 1846.
The name was expanded to ''Folkestone Dispensary and Infirmary'' and it relocated to a site on Dover Road in Folkestone in 1863.
[ The current general hospital buildings were constructed on Radnor Park Avenue, and opened in 1890, when the name was again changed, this time to the ''Victoria Hospital''.][ The prefix ''Royal'' was added in 1910.][
In the 1970s, services were scaled down, with the focusing of regional hospital care in ]East Kent
Kent is a traditional county in South East England with long-established human occupation.
Prehistoric Kent
Kent has been occupied since the Lower Palaeolithic as finds from the quarries at Fordwich and Swanscombe attest. The Swanscombe sku ...
on the town of Ashford, Kent
Ashford is a town in the county of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Great Stour at the southern or Escarpment, scarp edge of the North Downs, about southeast of central London and northwest of Folkestone by road. In the ...
. In 1973 maternity services were moved to Ashford's Willesborough Hospital. In 1979 the new William Harvey Hospital
The William Harvey Hospital is a hospital in Willesborough, Ashford, Kent, England. It is one of the three main hospitals in the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust area and is named after William Harvey (1578–1657), the Folk ...
opened in Ashford (ironically, named after Folkestone's William Harvey
William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and proper ...
), and many other services were transferred here over the following years.
Current operation
The hospital is the base for a large general practice and, although the accident and emergency department has closed, there is still an operational minor injuries unit. The hospital provides gynaecological
Gynaecology or gynecology (see spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with the field of obstetrics, forming the combined area ...
, otorhinolaryngological and urological
Urology (from Greek οὖρον ''ouron'' "urine" and ''-logia'' "study of"), also known as genitourinary surgery, is the branch of medicine that focuses on surgical and medical diseases of the urinary-tract system and the reproductive organ ...
outpatient services, diagnostic services, mental health care
A mental health professional is a health care practitioner or social and human services provider who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental disorders. This broad category was developed as a ...
, and general outpatient facilities.
The hospital has a day-time walk-in centre for non-critical patients without appointments, financed in part from a £2 million Government grant in 2014.
See also
* Healthcare in Kent
Healthcare in Kent has, from 1 July 2022, been mainly the responsibility of the Kent & Medway Integrated Care Board. Certain specialised services are directly commissioned by NHS England, coordinated through the South East integrated regional tea ...
* List of hospitals in England
The following is a list of hospitals in England. For NHS trusts, see the list of NHS Trusts.
East Midlands
* Arnold Lodge, Leicestershire
*Babington Hospital – Belper, Derbyshire
*Bassetlaw District General Hospital – Worksop, Nottinghams ...
References
External links
Official site
{{authority control
Hospital buildings completed in 1890
Hospitals in Kent
NHS hospitals in England
Folkestone